Disclaimer: Megaman doesn't belong to me, it belongs to Capcom.

Note: Rewatched Stream and replayed BN2 recently. This wouldn't get out of my head.

Timeline: Starts after BN2 and goes to just before the end of BN6.

Coming Home

It had been the end.

Gospel had been completely dismantled, the Gospel members arrested, and the leader, a boy named Sean Obihiro, had been captured by Lan Hikari, Eugene Chaud Blaze, and the Officials.

There had been the question of where to put Sean. Obviously, they couldn't send him off to an ordinary orphanage - he would have issues relating to other children and the last thing a troubled child needed was that kind of environment. They couldn't put him in prison, despite his crimes - he was only a child, and he had the smarts to break himself out of most prisons if he ever wanted to.

Lan had pleaded with them to go easy on Sean, that Sean had had an extremely troubled past and wasn't completely to blame for his actions, and had seemed to be operating under the instructions of someone else. Apparently a strange Navi had approached Sean one day and had offered to help him make the world "a better place", which had led to the formation of Gospel.

In the end, an Official named Misaki Gorou ended up being the one to take him home to where he lived in DenTown. Why Misaki had volunteered to be the one to take Sean, he wasn't sure. Perhaps he felt that somebody should care about where he went. Or perhaps he had always had a soft spot for kids, even troubled ones.

But with him Sean had come.

There were rules, of course. Sean was not allowed to go on a computer or use a PET without being supervised unless it was an emergency. He was not allowed to own a NetNavi either, which had just caused the boy to shrug.

"Whatever. I'd probably get them deleted like FreezeMan, anyways."

That statement had made Misaki wonder if FreezeMan had not just been a Gospel Navi, but Sean's own personal NetNavi.

"So, I suppose you want to know what happened to the rest of the Gospel members," Misaki told him, setting down a bowl of some noodles in front of him. Sean glanced at the noodles, and began to eat after giving Misaki a nod.

"Gauss Magnus was arrested," the Official explained. "Same with Princess Pride, Dave Haiyami, and Arashi Kazefuki. We were never able to find ShadowMan or CutMan's operators."

Both Dave and Arashi were in jail, but Princess Pride Bonne, after she had gone on trial, had been turned over to Creamland's authorities. She'd seemed genuinely sorry; while Misaki normally wasn't one for sob stories (despite what he was doing right now), he hoped that she would turn over a new leaf and work for the benefit of her country.

"I don't know if CutMan has one, and I never met ShadowMan's in-person, just that he was a mercenary. ...This is good," Sean admitted, gesturing to the noodles. "What about their Navis?"

"Thanks, kid. Backup data of their Navis was recovered," Misaki told him, carefully. He didn't want to reveal too much information, not yet... like what happened with the BugFrags and the Bass copies. "What happens to the Navis will be dependent on whether they and their operators cooperate." Chances are, they would at some point be released on parole.

Not right now, however.

"Was FreezeMan's recovered?" Sean simply asked.

Behind the monotone of the question, Misaki could sense the yearning behind it. If he was right, and FreezeMan had been Sean's personal NetNavi, then the boy simply wanted him back. He would probably feel the same if his own Navi, PrismMan, had been deleted, too.

"I don't know. I can try to find out."

Sean nodded, appearing to think. Misaki wasn't sure what he was thinking; he'd known that taking Sean Obihiro in wouldn't be easy, but this boy was very private and kept to himself. No surprise, given what had been revealed.

Taking care of Sean wasn't easy. The boy still hadn't opened up, even after weeks of spending time with him, and Misaki had expressed this to the Officials when they wanted to know how Sean was doing. Sometimes, he would go out with the boy to ACDC Town, where Lan and his friends lived. Sean seemed to be a little happier with them, but he wasn't sure if they were friends yet.

The matter of Sean's schooling also came up. The boy was likely a few years behind if he hadn't gone to school ever since he had started up Gospel.

"I would have suggest homeschooling for him, but you aren't qualified to be a teacher," Official Chief Keifer had told the young Official. "But we do have one candidate that is willing to privately school him." His assistant, Manuela, passed a piece of paper to Misaki, showing the picture of a young woman with her hair done up in croissant rolls.

"This is Yuriko Ozono, commonly known as Miss Yuri by the students that she teaches," Manuela explained. "Over the summer, she teaches summer classes to struggling students at DenTown Elementary. During the school year, she offers private lessons to students after school."

Misaki nodded. "Sean's a boy with special needs, though, and the things he's done aren't for the faint of heart to hear about. Is Ms. Ozono able to handle those kind of things?"

"Yes, and this part we would like you to keep confidential, Misaki," Keifer said, crossing his arms. "She was formerly a member of the WWW but left several years ago." Misaki couldn't help but stare. Yuriko looked like such a kind, gentle woman from the image. How could someone like her have ever been a part of the WWW?

However, Keifer was still talking. "The acts that Sean did would likely not affect her as much as it would affect another person, and with any luck, she would be able to help Sean both catch up on his schooling and learn to interact with other adults and not just Lan and other children."

Because even if Misaki was taking care of Sean, the boy had been betrayed by adults for most of his life. He needed to know that Misaki wasn't the exception, but rather the rule when it came to trying to help him.

"Alright," Misaki said, glancing down at Yuriko Ozono's picture again. He would trust Keifer and Manuela's judgement on this. "Will she be coming over to my house to teach him, or will I be taking Sean somewhere?"

"She will be coming over to your house almost everyday," Manuela explained. "We'd like it if you could be there initially to make sure that everything goes over well with the two of them. But if both Sean and Miss Yuri seem comfortable with each other, then it should be okay to leave them alone."

...Damn, his house was a mess and not fit for a young woman to be coming over. Time to clean up.

Hiring Miss Yuri to teach Sean had, in Misaki's opinion, been the best idea that Keifer had come up with. The first meeting hadn't turned out so well, with Sean trying to avoid conversing with her despite both adults' best efforts. But Miss Yuri hadn't given up, cheerfully saying that she would come back the next day.

She had, and had continued coming for the next several months.

Over time, Sean had started talking to Miss Yuri, often questioning her about anything that he could think of, and had even given Misaki some curious inquiries. He was still very closed off, but Misaki wouldn't be surprised if, underneath that icy, cool exterior, was a lonely child that just wanted to be loved. He was sure that no one had truly paid much attention to Sean ever since that his parents died.

Sean's aunt and uncle had been located, but they'd expressed that under no circumstances they would take the boy back, and he had no other living relatives. Clearly, there was little love lost between them.

Poor kid. Misaki wondered what would happen to him once it was decided that the Officials no longer needed to look after him.

"I've been afraid of planes since my parents died," Sean admitted when the three of them were talking after one of Sean's lessons. "I visited Netopia so that I could keep an eye on the Official NetBattlers' Association meeting... after that, I decided to head back home. Unfortunately, I'd told Gauss Magnus to hijack the next plane he was on, which just happened to be mine."

Miss Yuri placed a hand on his shoulder, but neither she nor Misaki asked what had happened next: they all knew. Lan Hikari, who had also been on the plane, had stopped it from crashing. Never had Sean been so happy that one of his plans had failed.

"Hey," Misaki said suddenly, and both teacher and student's heads turned towards him. "It's late, and about dinner time. Would you like to stay for the night, Miss Yuri? I can have PrismMan order some takeout, and we can turn a movie on."

Wait, had that been a bit too forward? Would she misinterpret his intentions? But Miss Yuri smiled, and Misaki found his stomach fluttering as she said, "I would love to!"

Oh Master, he loved seeing her smile, especially because Sean seemed happy to have her stay, too.

Dinner had been the specialty dishes from #1 Curry and a kids' movie that Sean had selected, though neither of the two adults seemed to have minded.

Misaki glanced over at the two of them from where he was sitting at one end of the couch. Miss Yuri was curled up on the other end, and Sean had even decided to sit between the two of them. Sure, Sean didn't look a thing like either of them - both adults had brown hair and brown eyes like typical Electopians, while Sean's grey hair and red eyes were definitely foreign - but with the three of them sitting on the couch, late at night, food on Misaki's coffee table, a TV playing a movie...

The Official couldn't note that they looked just like a family.

That first night together had been one of many. Misaki couldn't believe that Miss Yuri had said 'yes' to staying for the night; at first he believed that she had stayed because of Sean - she was clearly fond of the boy, and Sean's true personality seemed to be coming out the more he interacted with her - but as it turned out, she was interested in seeing him, too.

For one, she asked him and Sean to come to her apartment once. Apparently she lived with her twin sister, Mariko, but Mariko had been out that night.

"What does she do?" Sean had asked.

Miss Yuri had grinned. "Hah! My sister is also a teacher - she teaches at ACDC Elementary."

"Oh, isn't that where Lan goes to school?" Sean had replied.

"Yes, as a matter of fact, Mari is his teacher!"

Misaki had laughed. "Your family just happened to get mixed up in all of this, didn't they?"

Still, with him and Sean striking up a friendship with Miss Yuri, life became a little easier for them. Misaki didn't have to have Sean tag along with him all the time now, as the Officials had loosened up on the restrictions and allowed Miss Yuri to temporarily look after him.

The boy had even asked if he could go around and talk about what he knows about NetCrimes, to try to spread the knowledge and prevent other people from being taken advantage of the way that he had - as long as either Miss Yuri or Misaki was with him.

Misaki couldn't be happier.

Sean clearly was improving.

And he, Misaki, had a girlfriend!

Today had been horrible; SciLab had caught fire, and the Officials had managed to trace the data that had caused it to several servers. While it was unknown just who had done such a terrible thing, there had thankfully been no fatalities. Yuuichiro Hikari and several other scientists, who had bravely stayed behind to backup and save everything that they had been able to, were suffering from heat stroke, and many of the Officials themselves that had responded to the attack weren't in such great shape until the fires had suddenly stopped.

When Misaki had headed over to Miss Yuri's apartment to pickup Sean, he hadn't expected the boy to throw himself at him and hug him. He was surprised; Sean had, almost never, shown any sort of physical affection before.

"You're okay!" Sean had said, his voice shaky. Stunned, Misaki looked over at Miss Yuri for an explanation as he wrapped his arms around the boy's back.

"We heard about the fire at SciLab, and that you had gone to help take care of it," she said. She looked exhausted, almost as if she had been holding back tears. "Sean and I were worried sick."

The Official then remembered that Sean had lost his family, and had probably been afraid that he was going to lose him, too. Misaki gave him a squeeze. "Hey, I'm alright, kid. It'll take more than a fire to take me down!"

Sean released his grip and nodded, apparently not trusting himself to say anything. Misaki ruffled his hair, and turned to Miss Yuri. "...Don't worry, Yuriko. I'm fine."

She nodded as well, stepping forward to place an arm around his shoulders and lead him inside. "Can you tell us what happened?"

The expressions in both of their eyes said it all. Might as well confirm their suspicions. "We're not 100% sure, but we think it was deliberate sabotage by the WWW. We found evidence in many of SciLab's servers, of Mr. Progs with data designed to make them overheat." Misaki shook his head. "No one died, but a lot of people were sent to the hospital... including some big names, like Dr. Hikari."

"Lan's dad?" Sean was silent for a moment after Misaki nodded, before he spoke up. "Which hospital was Dr. Hikari taken to?"

"Beach Street Hospital," Misaki told him.

"Can we go visit him? I know we're supposed to head to DNN Station and then be at SciLab some time later... but I was hoping that I would get the chance to visit him. I want to tell Dr. Hikari something."

He blinked; Sean never failed to surprise him. "Well, I don't see why not. I'll contact the other Officials and Dr. Hikari and let him know."

Misaki did not expect Chaud to show up at his door one day, the IPC vice-president's limousine visible behind him.

"Official Blaze... how can I help you?" he asked him. Despite being almost the same age as Sean - a two year difference, if he remembered right - their maturity levels and statuses in society were completely different.

"Apologies for coming here on such short notice, Official Gorou," Chaud told him, one hand on his hip. "But I was hoping that I could borrow Sean for a moment."

The grey-haired boy peered suspiciously from behind Misaki. "What for?" Sean asked, echoing Misaki's question. "If this is about what the WWW was doing, I don't know anything about it."

Chaud's expression softened a little bit as he looked at them both, though he was focused more on Sean, and Misaki could see that behind the cool expression, he looked worried. "It's Lan. He's suffering. I was recruiting his friends to see if they could cheer him up."

"What happened to Lan?" Sean asked him.

"He's suffered a loss... an important one to him. I was hoping that his friends would remind him that he isn't alone," Chaud told him.

Misaki noticed Sean swallow. He could only imagine that loneliness was an emotion that the boy knew too well. "I'll go," the grey-haired boy said. "Right now?"

"Right now. Don't worry, Official Gorou," Chaud said, glancing up at Misaki. "I'll bring him back tonight."

"Happy birthday!"

Sean stepped into his (well, Misaki's) house, and froze, the Official behind him grinning ear-to-ear. Misaki's house had been done up with birthday decorations, and there was a cake on the breakfast table and a pile of gifts. The few friends that he had - Lan, Mayl, Dex, and Yai - were there, and even Chaud was standing in a corner, trying to play it cool.

"What's this for?" Sean asked, startled.

"It's your birthday, duh!" Lan said, sounding excited. "So we're celebrating it!"

While the boy was clearly a little overwhelmed, Misaki was pleased that Sean seemed to take it in stride and allow himself to loosen up and have fun with Lan and company for a few hours.

Once the children had left, a grin crossed Misaki's face. "So, the reason Yuri and I didn't give you a present yet was because we were waiting for them to leave."

Sean tilted his head. "How come?"

Opening a drawer, Misaki pulled out a small package. "Here you are. I think you'll like this."

Curious, Sean opened up the present, slowing down when he realized what it was: it was the latest PET model, and the emblem on the PET was...

"Master Sean, how good to see you again."

"FreezeMan?" Sean whispered, staring at the PET with a look of disbelief before he looked up at Misaki.

"We were able to recover FreezeMan," Misaki explained. "We've been working on him for the past several months, but I didn't want to tell you until we were sure that he would survive since he wasn't in very good shape."

"...Thank you so much." Sean clutched the PET close to him and set it in his pocket as Miss Yuri came up with a package that appeared flimsy.

"And this one is from the both of us, though it was my idea," Miss Yuri said, cheerfully.

It was a rather non-descript blue folder, and Sean was about to ask why they had given him this when he opened it up and his breath caught in his throat.

"...'Petition to Adopt Sean Obihiro by Misaki Gorou and Yuriko Ozono'," Sean said, his voice shaky. The paper in the file was a copy of the actual form, but there was no mistake.

"I talked it over with Misaki, and we both agreed to have joint custody of you," Yuriko told him. "If you want it, of course."

Despite having enjoyed living with Misaki, he'd always worried that one day, he would have to leave and make his own way in the world yet again. He had done it once before, and while he had managed, it had been exhausting and not fun in the least. Now, it looked like Misaki and Yuriko were both offering him a permanent place to stay.

Sean burst into tears.

It had taken five years, but he finally was home.

Misaki, for those of you that don't know, is a character from the anime. He and his Navi, PrismMan (or PrisMan, but I prefer PrismMan), never appeared in the games. Keifer and Manuela are also anime characters - as they are the NetSavior leaders in the anime, I'd imagine their game-verse counterparts would be Officials.

I'd always shipped Misaki and Miss Yuri in the anime, and thought I might as well add a gameverse version of the ship - since we don't know what happens to Miss Yuri beyond BN1, and Misaki didn't exist. We also don't know what ever happened to Sean beyond BN3, either. Plus, I love foundling families.

Chaud's name is a mashup of his BN1 name (Eugene Chaud) and his anime name (Chaud Blaze). I put Chaud as his middle name because I noted in BN3 that even his FATHER called him Chaud, which would be weird if Chaud was their last name. I also went with the Japanese name for his company, IPC, because it sounded much more professional than BlazeQuest.

I remember once reading that Princess Pride was actually supposed to be Princess Tron before her named was changed. As a homage to that, I gave her Tron's last name. Speedy Dave didn't have a last name in the English version, so I gave him his Japanese last name.