Chapter Text
"Tadashi?" Hiro's eyes became the size of Jupiter and he almost dropped his cigarette. He caught it, the lit end landing in his hand, causing him to howl.
"Hiro, I'm disappointed." The smoky apparition scolded him.
The man wondered if someone tampered with his smokes, like his dear Aunt Cass. Maybe she was trying to teach him a lesson.
"Hiro, look at me. You need to clean yourself up and actually care."
He ignored his brother, telling himself it was just his mind playing tricks on him, and nursed his burn.
"Hiro Hamada!" He then felt a mist-like form pin him against his bed.
"What the hell do you want? Are my decisions so bad you had to scold me from beyond the grave or something? You aren't fucking real." Hiro asked the mist.
"Hiro, I am just as real as you are. I'm not a defunct cigarette or drugged booze." Tadashi floated upright and solidified.
Hiro looked at him completely for the first time. He was wearing his dark grey blazer over his navy tee and dark pants underneath it all. On his head, however, his was missing his trademark baseball cap. His mint green sneakers had dark ashy marks staining them, as well as his hands. In his vaporous form, all his colors were soaked in a dilute, lightening them with a grey tinge. In his solid form, his colors were as vivid as the day he died, but his skin was kissed with a deathly pallor. His eyes were lined with eternal sleep and blood dripped from his scalp, like something had hit him when he had died. He reeked of smoke, death, and decay. He was the at the height of fashion six feet under.
"Well, do you think if I turned on the fan, you'd be blown away? 'Cuz I don't wanna hear you." Hiro laid back on his bed again, kicking off his black sneakers.
Hamada started to talk calmly, even though his was annoyed with his brother. "Listen to me. You're nineteen. You graduated high school at thirteen, and college at seventeen. You could do great things--"
"Other than save this stupid town three times a week?" The younger Hamada interrupted.
"Okay, you know what, drop the god complex. You're not special because you have a robot that I made that you added fighting to. By the way, do you know how angry I was with you over that? Baymax was made to help people, not for you to use to kill a man!" Hiro had never noticed how frightening Tadashi was until now. His voice filled the room like thunder and he was sure his older brother did notice it.
"I was hurt, okay? I had lost you, and I needed you." Hiro admitted, "And when the fire hit gas pipes and exploded, I lost everything."
"What explosion? I don't remember an explosion. I was hit in the head with a falling beam." Tadashi mentioned to the nasty gash on the top of his head. "I'm sorry I left you there, but I had to help Callaghan. I had lost Abigail and I couldn't lose him too."
"What do you mean 'you lost Abigail'? You knew her?" Hiro asked, shocked. "If you mean in a romantic sense, she was with Alistair Krei."
"She and I were together, secretly." Tadashi sighed. "She was a TA in a class of mine and she tutored me on a few subjects. We started talking and getting to know eachother better, and well, fell in love."
"I don't believe you. I'm not even convinced you're real." The young Hamada said back.
"Either way, we were in love. The night before she died we had gotten into a fight. I told her I didn't think it was a wise decision to pilot that mission but she said she would be fine and that it would go fine. AFter I had found out the news from gossip around the school, I was sick to my stomach. My last words to her were rather hateful."
"Well, good news is she's alive. I saved her. Well, Baymax and I did." Hiro reached up to put his hand on his brother shoulder, but stopped in mid-motion and place his hand back where it was. Tadashi didn't notice.
"She was only with Krei to get a bit farther in life, plus her father 'liked' him. He was rich, that's what Callaghan liked. Krei was an alcoholic when he was with Abigail, and probably still is. He blamed her for a lot of his issues. He took advantage of a lot of people and it came back to bite him. He'd leave all his messes for her and his team to clean up. Once, he found Abigail and I, ahem, together, and threatened to beat me with a bat. His words were so slurred, though, I could barely understand him. I simply got up and stood in front of him and he ran off." Tadashi continued his rant. "That's why were sending each other daggers the night I died."
"Did you hear me?"
"No."
"She's alive."
"What?" The ghost exclaimed.
"Abigail Callaghan? Yeah, she's alive. She was stuck in cotton candy hell," Hiro explained to his older brother nonchalantly. "It was gorgeous, but still terrifying."
Tadashi looked shocked. "I thought she was gone. No wonder I looked everywhere for her and I couldn't find her. Damn."
"Well, go haunt her ass and not--"
"Hiro, who's that?" Aunt Cass called up to him.
"No one, Aunt Cass." He called down, a bit panicky.
"Yeah, of course there isn't." Hiro heard footsteps on the stairs and he panicked on how to explain Tadashi. The door cracked open and he his train of thought was drowned in panic.
"Hiro, tell me who it is or--" Her reaction was the same as Hiro's. "T-Tadashi?"
"Aunt Cass."
Following a half hour of screaming, crying, and denial on Cass's part, the conversation finally continued.
"So, you mean to tell me, you came back from the afterlife to lecture your troublesome brother?"
"Yep, and for a few other things."
Cass turned to her younger nephew. "See, Hiro, your life choices are so bad right now, your undead brother came back from the dead to criticize them."
"Hey, Aunt Cass, why don't ask Tadashi what else her came back over!" Hiro tried to divert attention from himself.
"Well, Tadashi, you mentioned, now spit it out." Cass demanded of the ghost.
Paled brown eyes glared at lively ones.
"I wanted to talk to Abigail, one last time."