"No."

"But Aunt Cass-"

"Hiro, no, I have to draw the line somewhere." Cass told him sternly. "I'm happy that you have a girlfriend, and I'm proud of you for being in college at your age, but this is too much."

"But I don't want to keep her," Hiro insisted. "I just want to help her get home – she's lost and she was almost hit by a car."

Cass looked at her nephew's determined face, his eyes full of sympathy. She then glanced at Baymax.

In the arms of the rotund white robot, was an equally rotund white Bulldog. She wasn't wearing a collar, had no pet registry tattoo or name tag, but she was clearly socialised and well cared for (if the size of her belly was anything to go by); someone must have owned her. Cass had to admit that the Bulldog's wrinkled face was pretty cute – the dog was panting and her tongue was hanging out – it looked as though she were smiling.

"Please," Hiro pleaded. "Just one night – I'll take her to a shelter in the morning and they can scan her for a microchip."

"We don't know if she's good with cats." Cass mentioned. "What about Mochi?"

The Bulldog reacted to the word 'cat' with great anxiety and began quietly whimpering and wriggling in Baymax's grip. Upon hearing his name, Mochi appeared from around the corner and meowed. Suddenly everyone froze as Mochi and the Bulldog locked eyes with one another. For a few moments, there was complete silence. That silence was swiftly broken when the Bulldog, terrified of Mochi, slipped out of Baymax's grip and hid behind him, shaking and whining. Mochi arched up his back and hissed at the intruder, causing the dog to cower in fear. Mochi stretched and yawned and walked back in the direction he had appeared from.

"I guess that answers that question," Hiro nervously chuckled.

Cass sighed heavily.

"Okay, okay, she can stay for one night," She agreed, with one hand on her hip and the other wagging her finger at him. "But whether she's chipped or not, you'll have to leave her at the shelter; one pet is enough."

"Thanks Aunt Cass!" Hiro cheered, giving her a hug. "You're the best!"

"Yeah, yeah, just make sure she stays out of trouble." Cass giggled as she walked away. "And give her a bath, she smells like she's been digging through the trash."

Hiro watched with a puzzled expression as Baymax picked the anxious Bulldog up and began to pet her gently. How could they give her a bath with that metal plate on her head? What if it contained an electrical current? It could be very dangerous putting her in water, especially if it didn't have a protective coating… What kind of device would require that? But then again, what kind of person would implant something onto an animal with an electrical current running through it?

As these questions bounced around in Hiro's mind, Baymax carried the Bulldog up to Hiro's room.

"Wrinkles." Baymax announced.

"Huh?"

"This dog has a lot of wrinkles." He repeated as he touched her jowls.

"Some breeds do, Baymax," Hiro laughed.

"Wrinkles would be a good name for this dog." Baymax suggested.

"Woah, hold on there," He interrupted. "Don't get too attached, we can't keep her – she already belongs to someone, remember?"

When they got to the top of the stairs, Baymax placed the Bulldog down by the desk, where she flopped onto the floor and promptly fell asleep, snoring loudly.

"She sounds like an old motorbike," Hiro told him, as an idea suddenly sprang to the front of his mind. "Stay here, I'm just getting something."

Hiro ran back down the stairs. Meanwhile, Baymax again attempted to scan her. The scan revealed nothing – no brainwaves, no heartbeat, just nothing. It wouldn't even tell him that she was a dog. All it told him was that she was physically there. Then he looked at the metal plate and decided to scan it at close range. This time, the scan brought up something very interesting. At this point, Hiro reappeared with a bottle in his hand.

Baymax tilted his head at the boy.

"I found Mochi's dry shampoo," He informed him. "Technically it's for cats, but it says 'dog-safe' on the back."

"How will it wash her if it is dry?" Baymax questioned.

"It's not really dry, it's a foam that you rub into the fur," Hiro corrected. "They call it 'dry' because you don't need water to use it."

Hiro got a handful of foam, spread it evenly between his hands and started rubbing it in into the fur on the Bulldog's back. Baymax meanwhile used Hiro's computer to access an online database about dogs, and additional knowledge on this breed specifically. The dog was not going to be with them for long, but it couldn't hurt to have the information there for the sake of just-in-case.

"A second attempt to scan her has failed." Baymax declared.

"I wonder why, though," Hiro ruminated as got more foam from the plastic bottle and started rubbing it into the fur on the Bulldog's head, doing his best to avoid the chip at the back. "Maybe that metal thing really is the cause."

"While no information came of scanning the Bulldog, I have identified the nature of the metal chip." He began. "It is some kind of neural transmission device."

"Are you serious?" Hiro's eyes widened as he looked at the snoring dog before him. "Why would someone put that kind of thing on a dog?"

"Perhaps someone is trying to learn more about the canine brain functions," Baymax suggested.

"If that's true, then, is she even someone's pet?" Hiro paused for a minute. "I've heard of people attaching mini cameras to their pets to see what they do during the day, but this is totally different."

Baymax blinked a couple of times, curious to see where Hiro was going with this train of thought.

"Maybe… maybe she's a lab experiment that escaped," He contemplated, looking at her sadly. "And if that's true, then we can't take her to a shelter – if they find her owner then they'd just be surrendering her to life as a guinea pig."

"So, what should we do?" The robot wondered.

"We'll take her to college," Hiro decided. "Someone there might be able to help figure this thing out."

The sky was pastel pink and orange and yellow. There were bubbles everywhere, just floating and reflecting the sunset sky. And sitting on one of the bubbles, what looked like a young man with a scaly tail that wagged from side to side and dragon wings which glistened in the light. Then he turned around and smiled.

"Hiro…"

His cheeky face beamed with a happy smile and his messy hair was adorned with a small pair of tightly curled horns, like those of a ram. He stood up on the bubble and held out his hand. She looked down and saw that she too was sitting on a bubble, not far from him. She held up her hands and arms, and observed that they had golden stripes strewn across them. A white tiger tail came into view, also decorated with stripes of gold. That's when she realised that he was holding out his hand for hers.

As the bubble she sat on drifted towards him, she reached over to touch his outstretched hand. Once she got hold of it, the bubble beneath her burst, and he pulled her onto his bubble, still bouncing away in the retreating sunlight.

More and more bubbles appeared, as if taunting them to jump from circle to circle. He let go of her hand and bounced onto a nearby bubble, laughing as he landed on his stomach and bobbled about on the sphere of soap film. The bubble rolled around with him clinging to it and laughing jovially.

He sat up and waved her over.

"Come on, jump, it's fun!" He assured her.

She shook her head, she was nervous about jumping – what if she fell?

He put his hands together, and when he drew them apart, a bubble formed in his grasp. Once it was big enough, he gently pushed it towards her. She glanced at the approaching ball and hesitated. But when she looked over at his smiling face, she conceded and leaned over to grab it. As she clung to the fragile yet hard-wearing loop, she too rolled with the bubble as it gently spun towards him. The sun was setting, and his bubble was heading toward the pale moon that now hung in the sky.

"Wait for me!" She pleaded.

"Always," He replied, steering his bubble back to her.

He reached out his hand once more and just as she grasped it-

Go Go shot up, jolted from the dream she was having.

She sighed as a warm feeling spread through her whole body. That was certainly a nice dream, the nicest she'd had in some time. She rubbed her eyes wearily and got up to get a drink. It was perhaps her anticipation of going on a date that had stirred such a pleasant dream. Walking past the vivarium in which Imugi slept, she stopped for a moment to watch her beloved iguana. Imugi was getting very colourful lately, her legs and belly were turning slightly orange.

"It's getting to that time of year again…" Go Go said to herself with a smile.

She went into the kitchen, opened the fridge and took out a bottle of water. On the way back to her room, she once again stopped to look at Imugi. She recalled the first time Imugi began to change colour, and the panic that set in as she thought her pet might be sick. Finding a vet that specialised in reptiles wasn't all that hard – San Fransokyo was home to many specialist veterinarians – and luckily there was nothing wrong with her, but the fear remained long after Go Go found out that the colour change was due to Imugi being in season.

"I'll get you a treat tomorrow," She promised, fully aware that Imugi would not answer her. "Hibiscus flowers sound good?"

The rock iguana did not respond, and continued to sleep soundly as her owner put her hand on the glass for a moment. Go Go grinned at her sleeping pet and made her way back to her bedroom. She took a drink from the water bottle and set it on her desk. Once again her eyes wandered to the white dog plush. Picking it up, she smiled widely.

Dammit, Hiro, why are you so cute? She thought.

What was it about him that sent her senses reeling? She didn't know for sure, but given how good it felt, she didn't really care either. She placed the soft toy dog by her pillow and climbed into bed, hoping to continue the dream she awoke from.

It made no sense at all.

She was definitely there last night, but when Hiro woke up the next morning, the white Bulldog was gone. As he walked through the college gates, he tried to figure out how she got out and why she would leave. There was no way she could've jumped out the window, and she was too chunky to fit through Mochi's cat flap – given her obvious fear of cats, he doubted she'd go near it in case she came across Mochi in the process.

"I just don't understand…" He muttered to himself.

"Don't understand what?"

Hiro turned to see Fred standing next to him.

"Oh, nothing," Hiro said.

"I don't understand nothing either," Fred agreed. "I mean, if it's nothing, then it doesn't exist, but if it doesn't exist, why do we have a word for it?"

"Dragons don't exist," Hiro reminded him. "We have several words for them."

"Ah! But they do! Or at least they used to," Fred insisted, excitedly waving his arms. "I saw this video online, about an ancient relative of the Komodo dragon, it had blood-thinning venom that could make its victims bleed to death!"

"No fire or flying?"

"Hey, we're talking reality here," Fred noted. "But someone has worked out the scientific plausibility of a giant lizard being able to fly and breathe fire; it's totally doable!"

Hiro chuckled at Fred's innocuous and enthusiastic comments. Intentionally or not, Fred always managed to cheer people up with the funny things he said and did.

"So, are you excited or what?" Fred asked, nudging Hiro with his elbow.

"You mean about tonight?" Hiro replied. "Yeah, kinda nervous too, like I said yesterday, I've never been on a date before."

"Hey, don't worry bro, you'll be fine," Fred patted Hiro on the back. "Just remember what I told you, relax and have fun – that's all there is to it."

"You speaking from experience?" Hiro questioned.

"Hey, when I was your age, I used to hang out with girls all the time," He mentioned. "I'm no Casanova, but trust me – girls like to chill and have a laugh as much as guys do."

At that moment, a tall redheaded girl wearing glasses ran up to them; a large stack of papers in her arms.

"Hi Fred, I'm sorry to bother you, but my Buhi is missing!" She squeaked, handing him a piece of paper from the stack she held. "You haven't seen her have you?"

"Sorry, Lotus, I haven't." Fred apologised, handing the paper to Hiro

Hiro glanced at the poster she had given him and gasped when he saw the photo printed on it. This 'Buhi' looked almost identical to the white Bulldog from last night. Well, almost. This Bulldog was smaller and had big bat ears sticking up. Not to mention there was no sign of the metal plate.

"I did see a dog like this, but not with ears like that." He announced.

"The dog you saw, did it have ears that flop down like this?" She placed her posters on the floor for a moment and held her hands up on either side of her head, with her fingers touching her palms.

"Yeah!" He said.

"No, that's not her," The girl sighed, picking up her papers once more and pushing her glasses along the bridge of her nose. "The dog you saw is an English Bulldog, but my Buhi is a French Bulldog – see the bat ears? All Frenchies have them, the English ones have drop-down ears."

"Looks like you finally switched to a veterinary degree." Fred grinned knowingly.

"Am I THAT obvious?" She asked sheepishly. "Sorry, I just love animals, especially dogs!"

"We noticed." Hiro chuckled.

"Dad wasn't happy when I wanted to transfer from legal studies to veterinary medicine," Lotus admitted.

"Hey, you gotta do what makes you happy." Fred insisted.

"Yeah, you're right," She agreed. "Well, if you see or hear anything, please call me – my number is at the bottom there."

And with that she ran off to the next person she saw.

"Poor kid," Fred sighed. "When I was little, my hamster went missing and I got so upset, but then mom explained that he had gone to be with his hamster family."

Hiro gave Fred a sideways glance, not sure if he was joking or not. He examined the poster closely. What were the chances of him finding a lost Bulldog one day, and another Bulldog going missing the next day? Is someone stealing dogs and using them in weird experiments? He also wondered why she would bring her dog to college with her. Although, if she was a veterinary student, it would make sense to have animals with her during class – he recalled seeing someone in the robotics lab making rocket boots for their cat once, so having pets at university were a lot more common than he first thought.

"What did she want?" Go Go asked, making her presence known.

"Oh, Lotus? Her dog is missing, she was just asking if we'd seen it." Fred answered.

"Hmm…" She folded her arms and raised an eyebrow.

"I've never seen her before," Hiro said. "How do you know her?"

"That's Kendra's sister." She replied. "She's a nice enough person, too bad about her family."

"No way!" Hiro denied, watching the sweet-mannered girl approach other students and hand out missing posters. "She's nothing like Kendra."

"I couldn't believe it myself, I mean, they look nothing like each other and they're total opposites," Fred laughed. "But a few months back I overheard them arguing with the Dean about having to share a dorm room just because they're sisters."

"I've only met Kendra once and once was enough," Hiro chuckled. "I can't imagine being related to her."

"I know, right?" Go Go said. "Better keep an eye on the situation though, just in case."

"Just in case, what?" Fred wondered.

"Well, if it turns out that Kendra is behind this, then she and I are gonna have a little chat." She glowered.

"She wouldn't do that to her own sister, would she?" Hiro questioned.

"Oh she would," Go Go insisted. "And if she has, there's going to be trouble…"

Hope you enjoyed this chapter, dear readers, I am trying to intertwine some action into the cuteness. Fear not, the date is coming soon!

Thank you for your time xxx