= Disclaimer: I do not own the characters of the movie Big Hero 6, because if I did, Tadashi would be alive. =
= Cover picture credit goes to ask-hamadatadashi on tumblr. =
(Posted 2015-01-22, Updated 2015-03-25)
Age: Tadashi 21/ Hiro 13
Other Notes: Just a teeny bit almost-crack!Fic. Tadashi doesn't really look like he's the type to show off his abs (though he has a pretty good physique in the movie) and voila! Out came this fic.
Writer: songdreamer2016 & New and Old
Hamada Bros' Records of Memorable Events:
Tadashi's Tattoo!
.=.=.
"Ooh, my head..." Tadashi felt the world tilting around as he forced himself to get up.
He looked around to see himself on the sofa in Honey Lemon's apartment, the gang all lazing around in different areas in the late morning.
Fred was munching on some cereal at the kitchen table, Honey Lemon was standing next to the kitchen counter spreading jam on some toast, GoGo was coming out of the bathroom shaking her hair out in a towel, and Wasabi was sitting next to him reading something on his phone, looking quite fresh and more or less presentable, as always.
Honey Lemon noticed him looking around blearily. "Rise and shine, Tadashi!"
Tadashi mumbled an answer as he dry-washed his face but froze when he felt a twinge on his shoulder blade. "Ow."
He groped for the sore spot and felt a square piece of gauze taped on under the shirt. "Wha–?"
Gauze, twinging pain? Twinging pain on his shoulder blade? A night spent drinking all the alcohol his friends had poured him in celebration for his twenty-first birthday?
Tadashi's face paled. No way.
GoGo's deadpan voice confirmed what he had hoped was not true. "You got a tattoo."
Tadashi glared accusingly at Wasabi, the one who was supposed to be the sober one to keep them in check and drive them all home. Wasabi threw up his hands defensively. "I tried to stop you, I really did! But you insisted–"
Fred interrupted him, speaking through a mouthful of cereal. "Yeah, it was awesome! You were all like, 'Tsuyoshi-sensei is the best!' then dragged us all – almost carrying Wasabi bodily, now that was cool – to the tattoo parlor next to the bar." Fred swallowed his mouthful, pausing as he remembered something. "Yeah. That's what happened. And the design's really cool, I'll tell you that." He shrugged then scooped up another mouthful of cereal and continued to eat.
Honey Lemon looked like she wanted to disagree, but tentatively said, "Um, well... it is a nice design..."
Tadashi was getting a bad feeling; Fred's definition of cool...
He immediately headed into the bathroom that was still foggy from GoGo's use of the shower, pulling off his shirt. He turned around in the mirror and apprehensively stared at the bandage that covered his new tattoo. He gingerly began pulling the medical tape and gauze off, to find that the tattoo was –
– a short chain of sakura blossoms and petals.
Tadashi stared. And stared. Then turned to the wall and started banging his head, muttering idiot to himself.
Gogo's amused voice came through the open door of the bathroom. "I do tell you to woman up, but even I thought you had better taste than that."
An hour later, Tadashi stepped into the Lucky Cat café.
"I'm home," Tadashi tiredly called out to his aunt behind the counter as he headed upstairs. It was late morning and there were not many people in the café. He dry-washed his face, rubbing his eyes. I'm going to take a long shower, then crash until tomorrow.
Aunt Cass looked up and waved as soon as she finished handing over the change to her customer. "Hey, hey, hey! Hiro missed you today and almost skipped school, waiting for you to come back. How was your twenty-first birthday party? I heard your friends went and got you plastered!"
She began pulling off her apron as she abandoned the empty counter and walked towards him, taking up a small box from the behind the counter.
Tadashi yawned. "Um, yeah. I'm really tired, so I'm going to go wash and sleep."
"Oh, I bet you're so hung over. Here, drink this. You need to hydrate yourself again." She handed over the box she had brought over, hanging her apron on a chair nearby.
Tadashi looked dubiously down at the orange-juice box, but took it at his aunt's insistent look. He poked in the straw and began to sip.
As he was drinking the juice box, Tadashi's eyes closed in exhaustion, only concentrating on swallowing each mouthful of juice.
Aunt Cass took that chance to give him a full look-over as he sucked up the juice through the straw, half-asleep. "So? Where'd you put it?"
The straw still in his mouth, Tadashi peeked at her, opening his eyes blearily. "Mmh?"
"Your tattoo, silly!"
"– pfft!" Suddenly wide awake, Tadashi choked as he tried to control his spit-take. "– coughcough– How – ?"
"Oh, Honey told me over the phone last night. They weren't exactly sure if they wanted to let you get the tattoo in your drunken state, but hey, what's life without a few drunken mistakes?"
"Aunt Cass, I –"
"I mean, I don't think you're going to be stupid enough to find yourself drunk and alone with a gir –"
Tadashi, knowing where this was going, immediately cut her off. "O-Kay, Aunt Cass, I've heard enough."
She smirked, then looked up at her nephew, giving him a short pat on his cheek. "Aww, just look at my college man. Finally old enough to drink, and the first thing he does when drunk is get a tattoo."
Tadashi sighed, hand over his face in embarrassment.
Aunt Cass grinned, elbowing him in the side with a secretive look. She put a hand near her mouth as she conspiratorially whispered. "So. Are you going to show me, or do I have to enlist Hiro's help to get your shirt – it's on the upper body, right? – off?"
"Um. Uh. I..." Tadashi glanced around, hoping something would help him escape from Aunt Cass's clutches, but nothing was forthcoming. When he saw the gleam in his aunt's eyes, he resigned himself to the oncoming assault.
"... Not here... please? It's... really embarrassing."
"What, it's not like you got a flower or something."
At that, Tadashi looked away without saying anything, but his face told the whole story.
"Oh my goodness! You so did!" The diminutive woman squealed excitedly. She began dragging him towards the nearest bathroom, giggling. "Show me!"
Tadashi sighed and surrendered his body up to Aunt Cass's cooing, deciding right then and there to immediately get the tattoo removed as soon as he was out of his aunt's clutches.
The cheerful jingle of the bell announced his arrival to the Black Lotus Tattoo shop. He remembered commenting that the shop had an unusual window display of pictures of tattoos as they walked into the small bar next door. The building was a little run down, but the sign was lit up and it was clean from what he could see from the outside.
At the counter was a really tall, stocky man in his thirties in a sleeveless shirt that showed off muscular arms with intricately drawn full-length tattoos on each. He glanced up from the magazine he was reading with a stiff greeting. "Welcome to Black Lotus Tattoos."
As soon as the man saw Tadashi, a flicker of recognition appeared in his eyes. When the man behind the counter remained silent, Tadashi began to speak. "Um. Hi. I came here to ask about –"
The man looked back down at his magazine, speaking while reading. "There's only one way to remove it entirely – by lasering it off. But before you can do that, you need to wait until the skin heals over entirely, which will take a minimum of three weeks."
Tadashi blinked. "...Right. Uh, I'll –"
Flipping the page, the man interrupted smoothly. "There is also the method of drawing another tattoo over the original, changing the design. Most customers use this option."
Without looking up from the magazine, the man pushed a thick book that was on the counter and opened it to the last several pages, all with designs large enough to cover the small-ish tattoo on his back.
"Your tattoo can be overlapped by any one of those designs from that page on. The petals will be changed and incorporated into the new design. Now choose."
"...Thanks." Tadashi pulled the book closer to himself, eyes still on the man behind the counter. "...How'd you know I was going to come to get the tattoo changed?"
The guy gave him a look over his magazine, managing to convey all his disdain for the stupid question.
Tadashi awkwardly laughed. "Haha... Right..." He did get a flower tattoo while drunk only yesterday... it had to have been memorable.
After flipping through the designs, Tadashi chose the simplest abstract design that looked okay. It was a lot larger than he would have liked, but he just had to get a tattoo depicting the falling sakura... meaning the chain of petals were farther apart from each other.
The bigger tattoo would be a pain to cover up, especially from Hiro, but... considering the alternative of Hiro finding a sakura tattoo... I'd never hear the end of it, Tadashi thought with an inward sigh.
Tadashi looked back up at the man who was still reading his magazine. "Uh, yeah, so –"
The man simply pointed to a curtained off area without looking up.
The elder Hamada paused, not sure what to do with the book of designs he was holding onto. "Um, do I take the –"
The man looked up with a deadpan look conveying a duh, idiot, and went back to his magazine.
"...Right. Thanks."
"Welcome – oh, it's the cutie from yesterday~" A woman with piercings on her ears, nose and brow put down the phone she had been typing on as soon as she saw him. She had long light-brown-dyed-red hair done up into a bun using chopsticks and wore a tight sleeveless shirt and jeans, showing off a tattoo of a black lotus on her shoulder.
Tadashi's brows rose in surprise and a slightly apprehension at her calling him a 'cutie', despite expecting something unexpected. What in the world had he done yesterday?
The woman glanced at the book he held in his arms and gave a small pout. "Aww, you came in to change the tattoo? What a shame."
She gave him a once-look over, lingering on his chest until Tadashi shifted the book and crossed his arms, covering them from view. He knew that he was considered to have a pretty well-developed physique due to the many years of karate... but that did not mean she could outright stare.
The tattoo artist looked back up into Tadashi's face with an amused twist of lips. "Hon, I've seen it already yesterday, if you don't remember. I even asked you to show everything you had to offer, and you almost did, if your friends hadn't stopped you."
Tadashi averted his eyes, cheeks warm with embarrassment. He pulled on his best poker face as he decided, I am never drinking again.
Tadashi looked back at the artist only to find the woman give his body another, closer look as if to make a point. With a playful leer, the woman raised an eyebrow and asked, "Mind giving me a look on the whole package, this time?"
"...No thanks." Tadashi pointed to the design he had chosen. "Could you change the... design to this one?"
"Yeah, I can change it, but what a pity. You gave me a full-blown speech about a 'Tsuyoshi-sensei' and 'Hiro', and how they would love 'Dashi-kun's new tattoo', you know."
The tattoo artist gave him a mischievous smile and winked. "Something about the symbolism of tattooing a flower that the samurai of old had taken as their emblem to use? 'Live honorably even if one's life is as short as the falling sakura blossom' ring any bells?"
Tadashi flushed. I can't believe I actually said...!
"Aww, you're embarrassed! How cute. Your friends were trying not to laugh, but I thought it was a good reason for a tattoo. It was sweet."
Suddenly she stepped closer, seductively reaching out and straightening the collar of his blazer. She took her time to brush off invisible dust from his shoulder, lingering a little too long for comfort.
Tadashi tensely stepped back, pulling the book closer to his chest as a shield, carefully watching the woman's next move. She smirked and continued to speak, taking a step closer while ignoring his strained expression. "It is a masterpiece of a tattoo, I tell you, perfect for that yummy... shoulder blade of yours."
The artist's face came close enough for Tadashi to smell her sweet perfume. "Don't you want to... keep the design?"
Tadashi swallowed nervously at her proximity, but shook his head in the negative.
At that, the woman stepped back and put her hands on her hips with a disappointed look, all sign of flirtation gone. "Fine, I'll change my masterpiece of sakura blossoms for something boring. Can't believe my womanly wiles didn't work this time."
Tadashi blinked at the change in behavior, then breathed a near-silent sigh of relief at the last part, understanding that the woman had been pretending so to convince him to keep the tattoo.
The artist in question pursed her lips, going into a thinking pose with a hand under her chin. "Hmm... but for potential customers, you have to let me take a picture and post it on the window and design book. Of course, then the new tattoo is free of charge."
Display his naked back with the sakura tattoos – which was obviously masculine – on the window? Seriously?
"No."
"You sure?"
"Absolutely."
"Come on, Dashi-kun. It's not like anyone would recognize your back. Please? It's a great tattoo, and I know some girls who would want the design! Please?"
"No."
"Not even a small, teeny-tiny picture?"
"No."
Disgruntledly, the artist turned away and began preparing the needles and ink. "Alright, alright. No pictures, I get it, I get it. It's not like my masterpiece is going to be erased from the face of the earth or anything. Oh no, it's just that some customers would love to have the design, only, there's the tiny fact that the one design available has been destroyed, never to be seen again by anyone."
At the tattoo artist's blatant guilt-tripping, Tadashi decided to let up a little bit, as he was being a little closed-minded. "Fine. But the picture can only be in the book. Never on the window."
"Hmm... Well, that's better than nothing. M'kay! Shirt off, Dashi-kun!"
[At the beach, about a year later]
"Tadashiiii! When did you get a tattoooooooo!?"
Rolling his eyes at Hiro's antics, Tadashi pushed his brother's messy head away from his own, continuing to put on sunscreen. "Calm down Hiro. I got it a while ago."
"But... but... you... you..." Hiro stuttered, index finger still pointed accusingly at the older Hamada.
With an eyebrow raised, Tadashi inwardly chuckled at the ease of riling Hiro up. "I what?"
"You said you'd never get one! Who are you! What have you done with Tadashi!"
"Yeah, yeah, enough dramatics, knucklehead. It's just a tattoo." Tadashi answered, rolling his eyes again.
"I'm gonna tell Aunt Cass on you!"
Tadashi sighed. "She already knows. She was more pleased about it than I was." At Hiro's confused look, Tadashi shrugged. Even I'm still confused why that is.
Hiro squinted suspiciously at Tadashi, then decided that he was being truthful. He came closer and poked at the tattoo, wiping at it to check its permanence. Tadashi crouched, giving into his younger brother's insistence of getting a closer look.
After a few seconds of silently testing the legitimacy of the tattoo, Hiro wailed when it turned out to be real, flailing his arms. "But... but... I wanted to get a sakura tattoo when I was old enough!"
Hiro's preoccupation over glaring at his brother's tattoo made him miss Tadashi's twitch at the mention of 'sakura' and 'tattoo' in the same sentence.
With another poke at the tattoo, Hiro muttered. "...It's in the exact place where I want ours to be! Nyeh!" Another jab and a stuck out tongue at the tattoo. "Fine. We'll get it on the other shoulder blade. This one's boring, but...it's cool enough," Hiro grudgingly admitted.
...Other shoulder?
Feeling a sense of foreboding from Hiro's mutter,Tadashi turned his head to look at his brother, warily questioning him. "Exactly what are we getting on the other shoulder?"
Hiro began talking really fast, gesturing passionately. "I saw this awesome guy's sakura chain tattoo on a website, and I totally wanted to get one on the shoulder blade like the picture in honor of Tsuyoshi-sensei!"
"...A sakura tattoo? ...Seriously?" Tadashi deadpanned with an expression of horror, wondering if it was the same picture of his own back.
"Yeah! I still remember sensei's lessons on samurai, how they had the emblem of the sakura with the motto of 'live honorably even if one's life is as short as the falling sakura blossom'. I totally want a tattoo of sakura!"
Why, oh why, a sakura? Tadashi thought despairingly. He began arguing for anything other than a sakura, but had to stop with an undignified squawk when Hiro jabbed him in the ribs.
Hiro waved away Tadashi's glare. "Don't argue! It has to be a sakura! You can't deny that sensei's words were cool. It was the more awesomer form of YOLO! Gosh Tadashi, couldn't you have waited like, five more years?"
"Five years?" Tadashi spluttered, still holding onto his painful side.
"Yeah! Aunt Cass had passingly said I could get a tattoo when I was eighteen! I was gonna celebrate by dragging you to the parlor and get matching tattoos!"
"Ma-matching?!" Tadashi stuttered. "Wait, wait, wait, before, when you said 'we' –"
"Hamada Bros' Rule 38! The bros do everything together – stupid, crazy, genius, whatever! – no matter what!"
"But –"
"No buts! We're getting sakura chain tattoos on our shoulder blades when I'm eighteen!"
{(CI:E)}
A/N - Teehee. Hope you guys enjoyed this one-shot as much as I did. I especially had great fun writing the Tadashi and Hiro 'discussion' of the hypothetical sakura tattoo they would get five years later ;)
This story is the collection of stories that make up the background information of the Cosmic Intervention Universe. That means, whatever didn't make it onto either of our Twin-fics? It comes here. And because it is still essential information, it's labeled Companion-fic in the summary.
(So to those who were like, 'Who the heck is Tsuyoshi-sensei?', this is set in the Cosmic Intervention Universe where the TWIN-FICs Cosmic Intervention and I'll Try to Picture You Without Me But I Can't happens.)
Anyhoo, hope you liked this one-shot! Please leave a review to tell me what you liked, hated, or whatever!
Lotsa cyber-love to y'all!
