Hello! Yay, I'm back for the first time in forever! This is my first fic in a long while (only my second overall on this website) and I hope you guys enjoy! I'm obsessed with Big Hero 6 right now (especially Baymax and Tadashi!) so I wrote this first chapter pretty quickly. I like it, but sorry if it sounds just a little too rushed. Anyway, enough rambling, enjoy!
I think it's pretty obvious that I don't own Big Hero 6 or any of its characters.
It was just a normal day, a normal drive to the San Fransokyo Institute of Technology where the school's baseball team had another game to play. The Hamada family went to as many SFIT Ninja games as possible since both Mr. and Mrs. Hamada had earned degrees from the college.
Tadashi was so excited for that baseball game. It was the first time his little brother, Hiro, got to come along. Usually the four year old was babysat by their aunt Cass during such outings, but she was sick with the flu and stress eating because of it, which put her in no health to watch a crazy toddler. And so the Hamadas decided to bring their fourth member along for the ride.
The brothers were sitting in the back seat, Tadashi excitedly explaining baseball to Hiro while he played with his favorite model robot, not seeming too particularly interested.
"Dad, do you think the Ninjas will win today?" Tadashi asked, looking into his fathers eyes through the rear-view mirror.
Mr. Hamada took off his SFIT Ninja cap, the one he'd had since his freshman year of college, and reached back to place it on Tadashi's head. "Is your name Tadashi Hamada?" he asked, glancing back at his son.
Tadashi laughed at that.
And then he watched as his father looked back to the road, shouted and slammed on the breaks as another car sped toward them.
The impact was unbearable.
Tadashi had a broken arm and bruised eye from slamming into the passenger seat. Hiro escaped with only a small cut to his forehead.
The doctor told him later that the airbags in the car were faulty. That Hiro and Tadashi were lucky to be alive. That he was so sorry that their parents didn't make it.
It was just an accident. The other driver had swerved to avoid a pothole, then lost control. That didn't stop Tadashi from blaming him for his parent's death. The other driver survived.
It just wasn't fair.
Tadashi Hamada was depressed.
At least that's what Dr. Mya, one of his aunt's dearest friends, said. Since aunt Cass was in a tight spot money-wise, what with unexpectedly inheriting her two nephews and trying to save up money to open her own business, her friend had agreed to give Tadashi free counseling sessions in exchange for a batch of Cass's famous chocolate chip cookies. According to Dr. Mya, Tadashi had all the signs. Eating too little, sleeping too much, short temper, unexplained headaches. Tadashi didn't think he was depressed, just sad and upset and... scared. But in an attempt to help him overcome his supposed "depression", his aunt made him visit Dr. Mya once a week.
Tadashi didn't like going and talking about his parents' death. It had only been a month, and the crash was still fresh in his mind, and it was just too painful to think about. They wouldn't even let him bring Hiro along, who always helped Tadashi feel a bit better, because Hiro was not "depressed". Hiro was too young to quite understand what exactly death meant. He hadn't yet processed that he would never see his parents again.
And he was already forgetting about them.
After the crash, Tadashi's little brother would ask him every day when mom and dad would be home. But it had been two weeks since Hiro last asked about them.
And aunt Cass. Every time Tadashi would bring up missing his parents, or really anything about them, she would give him a pity-filled look and tell him to "be strong" for Hiro or tell him that his parents would always be with him as long as he remembered them.
He felt like she didn't miss her brother and sister-in-law as much as she should. Like she didn't understand how he was feeling.
Like he was all alone.
Maybe he was depressed. He had good reason to be, right?
Tadashi stepped off one of San Fransokyo's many trolleys, backpack slung over his shoulder. It had taken a whole lot of prompting from aunt Cass and Dr. Mya, but he'd finally decided to go back to school. He didn't want to get too far behind on his work. Of course, when his teacher handed him his missed classwork she had given him a sad look and said he could take as much time as he needed to finish it. And all of his classmates and friends had acted strange around him, not really wanting to talk about his loss but still wanting to ask if he was alright.
It was a bad day to say the least.
He walked for about a block before he came to his aunt's apartment. It was a small, old building with rusting metal stairs and dark windows, and aunt Cass was ready to move out the minute she had enough money to open her bakery, but it was homey. He climbed the stairs to apartment number 313 and knocked.
Aunt Cass opened the door, a wooden spoon in her hand. She was wearing an apron covered in flour.
"Tadashi!" She smiled and pulled him in for a hug, forgetting about the flour. When she finally pulled away, she realized her mistake.
"Oops." she tried to suppress a laugh. Tadashi walked inside, closing the door behind him.
Aunt Cass went back to her baking. She must have been trying to perfect one of her cookie recipes, because it seemed as if every ingredient they owned was splayed across the counter and kitchen table.
"So tell me, how was school today? Do you have a lot of work to catch up on? I bet you were glad to see your friends again, weren't you? Do you want to try one of these cookies?" She was asking questions faster than he could answer.
He forced a smile as he looked at her. "Actually aunt Cass, I'm really tired..." he gestured to the flour now all over his shirt. "I think I'll go change and take a nap."
There was that pity-filled look again. Aunt Cass wiped her hands on her apron and went over to him, patting him on the back and kissing the side of his head. "You don't want to eat anything first? I can make your favorite hot wings. You know the ones with the sauce that makes our faces numb and..."
Tadashi felt his stomach rumble. "No thanks. I'm not very hungry." He pulled away from her and headed back to the room he shared with Hiro, taking his backpack with him. He hoped aunt Cass wouldn't go through his bag while he was sleeping and find his lunchbox, full of untouched food.
The rest of the week went the same. Tadashi went to school. He did his daily work as well as what he needed to do to catch up. He skipped lunch. He rode the trolley home. He was greeted by aunt Cass at the door. He refused food. And he slept. Sleeping was what helped him get away from his reality. When he slept he didn't have to think about his mother and father.
On Friday aunt Cass opened the door to see Tadashi's weak smile. He could really only muster up a smile for her. She pulled him inside and he immediately smelled them. Hot wings. It made his mouth water.
"Surprise! I made your favorite!" She grinned. "You hungry?"
Tadashi was hungry. But he didn't want to eat.
"Nah... I'm good aunt Cass. I think I'll just go work on my homework and then get some sleep..."
She interrupted him. "Tadashi, I've been checking your lunchbox. You've barely eaten anything all week. You have to be hungry."
"But I'm really not." he lied, rubbing the back of his neck. He was too upset to eat.
"I know how you feel, honey." Aunt Cass sympathized. "I'm sad too. But you can't just stop eating. You have to keep your head up and stay strong."
Tadashi felt the tears beginning to well up. He was losing his temper. "You don't get it aunt Cass! You don't understand! I don't understand! How can you go about baking stupid cookies and hot wings and working when my mom and dad are dead?" The tears were flowing steadily now. He shut his eyes and wiped at his face. He felt a pair of arms wrap around him and he cried into aunt Cass's shoulder.
"Oh honey." She sniffed. She was crying too. "I promise you, I miss your mom and dad like crazy. It's been hard on me, and I know it's been even harder on you, but your parents wouldn't want us to sit around and cry all day. They would want us to continue living our lives, even if we miss them. I'm so sorry Tadashi."
"Aunt Cass, I don't know what to do."
She pulled away from him and held him at arms length. "Just live your life Tadashi. I'm not saying it's going to be easy, but that's all you can do. You have so much coming in your future, so much, and I know you are going to do great things and I'm going to be so proud of you. I already am proud of you." She reached up and wiped a tear from Tadashi's cheek. "Everyone grieves in a different way. I don't want you to forget your parents or act happy. But you do need to grieve in a healthy way. That means you have to eat and you can't sleep all the time. Just know that I'm here for you, Hiro is here for you, and Dr. Mya is here for you. We love you."
Tadashi grinned weakly. "Thanks aunt Cass."
She tousled his hair and gave him one last hug. "So are you hungry now?"
Tadashi shook his head. "I might eat later."
Aunt Cass frowned, an upset look in her eyes.
"I will eat later." he corrected himself. "I just really need to start on this homework."
"Ok." She said sternly. "But you better be back in here in an hour or I'm bringing a plate into the room and feeding it to you."
Tadashi smiled and went to his room.
After thirty minutes Tadashi was ready to give up on his math. He hated word problems with a passion. He knew he was smart, but math was not his best subject.
Just then the door to his shared room opened and in popped Hiro. The toddler had started going to daycare recently, and one of the other kid's mom had volunteered to drop off Hiro at the end of the day.
"Dashi! Aunt Cass made wiiiiiiings!" Hiro said excitedly, jumping onto Tadashi's bed. He laid on the ten year old's back and looked at the math worksheet.
"I know, Hiro. Just have to finish this math sheet and then I'll be ready to eat."
"Well hurry uuuuuhhp! I'm starving!" Hiro whined.
Tadashi smirked. "Hey, this stuff is pretty hard! Just listen to this: Steve had eleven boxes of fifteen cards each. He met a friend and gave him four cards. How many cards does Steve have left?"
"One hundred sixty one." Hiro answered, mere seconds after Tadashi had finished reading the problem. "Ok can we go eat now?"
"What?" Curious, Tadashi worked slowly through the problem. Turned out, his little brother was right.
"Hiro..." Tadashi said slowly, then looked at the next problem. "Ok, try to solve this one: Mike had nine boxes of eighteen pencils each. A friend gave him sixteen more pencils. How many pencils does Mike have now?"
"That's easy. One hundred seventy eight."
Tadashi worked out the problem and got the same answer. He stared at his little brother. "Hiro, you're a genius!" He picked up his little brother and tickled him, both boys bursting into laughter.
Aunt Cass came into the room just then. "Boys... what's going on?" She smiled when she saw the two brothers playing.
"Oh nothing aunt Cass." Tadashi answered, setting Hiro back down. "I'm almost done with my homework, we'll be out for dinner in a minute."
She smiled widely and walked back out, shutting the door behind her.
With Hiro's help, Tadashi finished his homework five minutes later. When they were done he put up his books and papers and they laid back on the bed.
"Dashi, when are mom and dad gonna come back?"
Tadashi turned his head to look at his brother. Hiro's eyes were wide and curious.
"They aren't coming back Hiro. It's just you and me and aunt Cass now." He said softly.
"Is that why you've been "duhpreshed" and sad?" Hiro asked.
Tadashi nodded. "Yeah knucklehead, that's why."
He thought about what aunt Cass had said earlier, and about how smart his brother was, and about how having Hiro around made Tadashi less upset.
Because when Hiro was around, Tadashi didn't feel so alone anymore.
"But you know Hiro," Tadashi began, "even though I'm sad that mom and dad are gone, I'm glad that I still have you and aunt Cass." He paused for a second, thinking. Just then he saw his father's baseball cap, hanging on the bedpost where he had left it the day after the crash. He hadn't touched it since that day, but now he reached over and grabbed it, placing it on his head. "Promise me this Hiro, we're always going to be brothers. And brothers help each other out. Whether it's helping with homework or cheering each other up or getting out of trouble, we have to stick together. We'll make it rule number one. Let's shake on it."
Tadashi and Hiro made a fist and bumped them together, then wiggled their fingers while making explosion noises.
"Thanks for being here for me, buddy." Tadashi said.
Hiro smiled a gap-toothed grin. "I'm just following Hamada Code." He stated matter-of-fact-ly.
Tadashi liked that name for their set of "rules". It had a nice ring to it.
"I love you, Dashi."
"Love you too, Hiro."
And after that day, life did start to get better.
TEARS! Makes you want to cry right? Maybe? Well if you liked it, please comment and/or follow for more chapters! Also, I'm a Disney freak, so if there's another Disney movie you want me to write fanfiction for, please let me know! Have a magical day!