Chapter Text
Hiro couldn't believe it.
He had done it! He had gotten into San Fransokyo Institute of Technology!
Punching a fist into the air, Hiro shouted for the world to hear. "I did it!"
"You did," agreed Tadashi, grin as wide as his own. His older brother offered a fist. "Fist bump?"
Hiro immediately bumped fists, then made an exploding sound effect. "K-pgrrwwww!"
As Tadashi grinned proudly down at him, he couldn't help grin back, bouncing on his feet. Thanks to his older brother, he had safely finished his presentation.
He had been nervous in the beginning, especially after seeing the reaction of that one guy with the clipboard, but just when he felt like things couldn't be any worse, Tadashi had mouthed to him, 'breathe'.
…It was good advice given just in time; he had wanted to melt into the ground and disappear from shame. But after taking a deep breath, he had calmed down and finished the presentation as planned.
The best part? Everyone started paying attention and was subsequently amazed by his invention, and! Professor Callaghan had given him the acceptance letter personally!
He was interrupted in his thoughts when arms grabbed him and lifted him off his feet.
A voice gushed with affection. "Come here, you," It was Tadashi, and he was currently carrying him like… like he would a toddler!
"You complete and utter genius!" His older brother shouted proudly, swinging him around in a circle whilst hugging him tightly.
"Gah, gross! G-get off, you nerd!" Hiro began to squirm, his thoughts a jumble of 'totally making a scene' and 'darn I gotta get taller soon'.
Tadashi ignored his squirming, hugging Hiro even tighter. Rubbing against his younger brother's messy hair, Tadashi spoke into his ear: "I am," – cue tighter hug – "so proud of you."
Hiro felt his cheeks burn in embarrassment, aware that they were attracting amused looks from bystanders.
He hissed, "You're so embarrassing!" then squeaked when Tadashi's hug became even tighter than before. "Can't. Breathe."
Argh, we eat the same things, so how is he so strong?
When Tadashi showed no signs of loosening his grip, Hiro began jabbing his brother's side – his older brother was weak right under the arms and the ribs – a few seconds of jabbing later, he was free from the death grip, his older brother wincing in pain at a particularly sharp jab.
"Okay, okay. No hugs." Tadashi rubbed at his sore spots as he grimaced. "Your elbows are lethal."
Hiro took deep breaths of fresh air, mentally chanting can't hit Tadashi, he's still a lot bigger, grumbling out a semi-nonchalant 'whatever'.
He brushed away the hair in his eyes. He looked up to see Tadashi coming closer with a familiar look on his face.
Immediately pointing his index finger out in defense, Hiro warned him off with slight panic in his voice. "No more hugs!"
Tadashi smiled that infuriating big-brother-smile, and backed off, nodding sagely. "Sure."
He then proceeded to ruffle his hair roughly.
"Gah!" Hiro ducked, avoiding the hand. "Tadashi!"
When Tadashi just laughed, Hiro couldn't help but be frustrated, though he could see why Tadashi found it funny. "Stop laughing!" Man, just you wait... I'm so gonna get you when least expect it...
As if sensing Hiro's rising need for revenge, Tadashi raised his hands in a placating manner, his eyes crinkled up with mirth. "All right, all right, I'll stop." His smile grew softer, fonder. "But you were amazing. And I'm proud of you."
"Yeah, yeah." Hiro muttered. He shifted his feet, hoping that the light was dim enough to hide his burning cheeks. Though, from Tadashi's wide smile, it wasn't dim enough.
"And stop that! It's embarrassing!" He pulled up the hood and zipped up the jacket up all the way, pulling it over his mouth to cover up part of his face. From the shadows of his hood, he glared at his aggravating older brother.
Tadashi chuckled, reaching over to pat his head. "Come on genius, let's go," A nudge when Hiro stubbornly remained still, arms crossed. "Aunt Cass and the others are waiting."
Hiro sighed, then mockingly answered his older brother. "Okay, Tadashi."
Tadashi mimicked Hiro's tone. "Good, Hiro."
From that point on the conversation digressed into playful insults as they started making their way to where their friends were waiting.
When they almost reached the entrance of the parking lot, Hiro couldn't help making a last poke at his brother in revenge for the teasing earlier, grumbling into the zipped up jacket. "Guess I'll be joining you at your nerd school."
His hood was jerked down abruptly, shocking Hiro into stopping, his eyes wide with disbelief. He did not just touch the hood. To retaliate, he knocked off Tadashi's cap from his head. Tadashi froze in surprise, and the two brothers had a brief staring contest.
All of a sudden, Tadashi's pokerface morphed into that smile; Hiro smiled an impish smile of his own in answer as he waved Tadashi's trademark hat in his hand like a trophy.
A few seconds later a game of keep-Tadashi's-hat-away was in full swing, Tadashi chasing Hiro around threateningly muttering, "Bear hug… Bear hug…"
Unfortunately for Hiro, compared to Tadashi's fit physique, he had no chance of outlasting his brother in stamina. All too soon, he was in his older brother's clutches once again.
"So... What did you call me, bonehead?" Tadashi growled playfully.
Hiro stuck out his tongue. Childish, but the only action he could currently take. "I called you a nerd!"
Tadashi hmmed noncommittally. "Oh yeah? Well, since you'll be attending the nerd school in a month," At the change in his older brother's tone, Hiro gulped in nervousness. Uh-oh. I have a bad feeling that he's going to – not there! Tadashi began tickling him mercilessly, singsonging, "You're also a nerd, nerd." Hiro yelped but couldn't help laughing.
"Gahahahaha!" Hiro tried choking out a calming breath, trying tolerate the ticklish feeling, but Tadashi's unrelenting fingers made it hard to concentrate on ignoring the ticklish – Ah!"Okay, okay, I give!"
Tadashi paused in his tickling, but didn't let go. "What's Rule 96 of the Hamada Bros?"
Hiro gaped at his brother. "Seriously? You want me to sa – AHH!" Hiro tried to wriggle away as Tadashi resumed his tickling. "Aha, ah! Uh, un, uncle!" Finally, the tortuous tickling stopped.
The younger Hamada sagged into his older brother's arms, taking a moment to calm his breathing before commenting, "I feel like I'm gonna die."
Tadashi chuckled, then helped his brother stand. "You'll be fine." Hiro felt his older brother's big hands place the cap down low on his messy head, almost over his eyes. Hiro pouted as he fixed it into a better position, grumbling inwardly about the unfairness of his older brother's larger physique and longer reach.
When Hiro looked back up at his older brother, he saw that Tadashi had a fond smile on his face, looking off towards Aunt Cass and his friends.
At the sight of Tadashi's lab friends, Hiro's forgotten excitement for getting accepted to SFIT came rushing back. He began to skip as he and Tadashi started heading for Aunt Cass and the gang again, Tadashi walking sedately slightly behind him.
Hiro couldn't help the small chuckle of glee that escaped him as he happily bounced around Tadashi.
He was so excited for the coming school year, because– because–
Because he was going to go do awesome robotics-inventing in college with his brother!
They were passing the entrance to the parking lot when a shrill bell rang in the quiet night.
Hiro glanced up at Tadashi to see him frowning at something in the distance. "What is it?" He took off the view-limiting cap and handed it back to his older brother, craning his neck to see what Tadashi saw.
His eyes widened when he saw the dark column of smoke rising from the exhibition hall. He glanced up at Tadashi to see him look very serious, all lightheartedness from before forgotten.
"Fire alarm," Tadashi answered absently, setting the hat back on his head. "Come on – and stay close."
Tadashi pushed Hiro ahead, hands on his shoulders to lead him in the right direction. There was a growing crowd near the steps, and soon Hiro was surrounded by people taller than him, blocking his view of what was going on.
I seriously need to talk to Aunt Cass about buying more milk, Hiro grumbled inwardly. I'm surrounded by people who are inconsiderate of shorter people's feelings.
Tadashi tapped a shoulder of one of the people who was gathered around. "What's going on?" he asked, watching the smoke rise from a far corner of the roof of the building.
"A fire broke out," came the reply. "The fire department's been called."
Hiro was immediately interested. A fire? No way, how cool is that? A real fire up close! Maybe I would get to see a real firefighter shooting the jets of water. I've always wanted to see how the truck pumped water...
"And they better get here quickly," someone added. "There are a lot of flammable things in there."
"Yeah," Tadashi answered the woman distractedly, eyes still on the trail of smoke in the air.
Wait, flammable things? The fire is in there where my microbots are?
Hiro gasped, patting down on his pockets. Oh no!
Tadashi looked down at him. "What is it?"
"My neural-cranial transmitter!" Hiro answered, turning his pockets inside-out frantically, hoping that the transmitter would magically appear. "It's still in there!" It took weeks to solder the entire electromagnetic pathways and tons of expensive metals to make that transmitter! I can't let it get destroyed by fire, I have to get it out!
He took a step forward, but something snagged his jacket hood, jerking him back. Hiro looked back to find his brother frowning down at him, holding onto his hood firmly.
"Oh no, you don't," Tadashi said determinedly. "There's a fire. Hopefully it'll survive the flames, but if it doesn't, you'll just have to make another one. I'm not letting you go inside."
But – but – ! "It's just a small fire!" Hiro protested, trying to tug his jacket free from Tadashi's grip. "And it's going to take me another month to gather up enough materials to make another neural-cranial transmitter!"
Tadashi shook his head. "No is no, Hiro," he said firmly.
Okay, didn't want to resort to this, but he's giving me no choice...
Hiro used his ultimate wild card, cutely pouting at his brother, head tilted at just the right angle, eyes just wide enough and lips pursed just the right amount. Aunt Cass had never, ever said no to this calculated pout, and he had tried not to use the expression often, in order to leave a bigger impact when he did use it. His brother was obviously not going to be able to resis –
Tadashi's face remained stern. "Even with the puppy eyes," He tacked on.
"Killjoy," Hiro muttered, slumping in his brother's grip. Let go of the jacket, let go of the jacket... Unfortunately, Tadashi knew him too well and didn't let go of his jacket.
Gosh, his brother was such a stick in the mud.
I only need to go through the back door on the opposite side of where the fire was, grab the transmitter and I'd be back before anyone knew, but Tadashi just wouldn't let go of my –wait. Tadashi is only holding onto my jacket.
Quickly, before Tadashi thought to grab him by the arm, Hiro unzipped himself and slipped out, ducking between the small spaces in the crowd. He yelled to his brother who shouted in surprise and angrily called out his name, trying to follow with difficulty. "Sorry, bro! I'll be in and out, I promise!" He thought he heard Tadashi say something, but whatever the older Hamada said was lost in the hubbub of the crowd.
Hiro slipped between people and escaped the crowd in record time, then proceeded to run around the building for the small fire exit he remembered seeing near the stage where he had left his project.
When he opened the fire exit, Hiro was relieved to find that the room was fire-free, though there was a lot of smoke. He thought he saw a flicker of fire at the farthest corner of the large room, but it was hard to tell in the smoky room.
"Better hurry..." Hiro muttered, darting towards the stage where he had left the transmitter and microbots.
He found the neural-cranial transmitter easily and grabbed it quickly. When he looked back around to check around the place for the fire, he saw that the flicker from before had become bigger, and he saw the orange glow of fire. There were tiny flickering flames at one of the tables, blackening the plastic-y project as it burnt the poster behind it.
Hiro was turning away to leave when a mini-explosion caused him to look back at the project in surprise.
The project must have had something flammable inside, he thought as he covered his mouth with his sleeve.
Now intent on getting out of the building, he hurried towards the exit when an idea came to him, stopping him in his tracks. He stared down at the transmitter in his hand.
The microbots do everything I imagine them to... Are there enough microbots to extinguish the fire before it spreads any further?
He stood a moment, looking back and forth from the transmitter and the flames. As he deliberated on his course of action, he didn't notice a figure slowly approaching him from behind, mostly hidden by the smoke.
Hiro jumped at the sudden crash when the burning table collapsed, spreading fire to something he remembered to be some kind of alternative energy source – Okay, forget stopping the fire, I really need to get out of here.
But before he could turn and run in the direction of the fire exit, someone grabbed him from behind and covered his nose and mouth with a cloth that smelled strongly of some sickly-sweet smell. Hiro yelled into the cloth in surprise and began struggling against the strong arms that held him captive.
Wha– What's going on – wait, isn't this like...? With... chloroform? Nowaywhowould –
He desperately pulled at the arms that were holding him up in the air, trying loosen his assailant's hold to stop breathing in the stupid fumes that were choking him up –
– When arms are disabled, Tsuyoshi-sensei said to –
He kicked at the guy, trying to hit wherever he could, but the overpoweringly sweet fumes were clouding up his senses –
– to... to... something... what was it –
He struggled, but his limbs were like wet noodles, slowly losing strength as he lost the battle of not breathing in the chemical –
– last... resort was... to...
It was hard to breathe; the cloying smell was like trying to breathe underwater and the chemical scorched his throat as it passed through; he felt his fingers lose hold of the transmitter –
...t..o... kick...
The fourteen-year-old dangled uselessly in his assailant's arms as if a puppet on cut strings. One foot gave a final twitch as it tried to follow the last command to kick, but it fell limp and felt as if heavy weights were attached –
...no... can't...
The teen smelled a wave of smoky air instead of the chokingly sweet whatever-it-was as the cloth was removed from his face. As he vaguely felt himself shifted into a fireman's carry, the smell of acrid smoke pulled Hiro back from the border of unconsciousness, but the chemical's effect on the rest of his body didn't allow him to struggle again. Soon, the smell of smoke was starting to overpower the smell of chemicals in his nose; but now it was like trying to breathe acid instead of water – the smoke stung his already-scorched airways something horrible –
...need... wake...
His eyes were only half-open, slowly closing. He fought to keep his heavy eyelids open, but breathing was getting even more painful and his eyes were stinging from the smoke –
. ..no...
His assailant threw something, and he thought he heard a crash of glass breaking followed by a phump of a fire growing larger. His arms and legs began swinging limply as he felt the man moving, carrying him away somewhere – he tried to keep his eyes open, but the smoke and the harsh orange glow everywhere hurt to see –
As his eyes closed shut – just for a second, to rest it before opening it again – he thought he heard his brother's voice calling his name and tried to call back, but the only sound that came from his lips was a small, incoherent mumble. He thought he heard Tadashi's voice again, but the stupid chemical and the smoke was making him – so – tired –
Tadashi... I'm... right... here...