A/N: Since it is my birthday (January 20th), I decided to do a special fanfiction! It is the prequel of 'The Sort of Funny Thing about Us'. By the way, I am following the United States education system in this fanfiction.
IMPORTANT: I suggest you read 'The Sort of Funny Thing about Us' before/while reading this
01. What is Your Perfect Place?
"You need help?" Tadashi poked his head next to yours, bending down behind you.
You had stayed after school to finish homework, knowing that once you got home, you would just procrastinate. Tadashi told you he was going home, but apparently not.
You yelped, and grasped your notebook out of fright. Once you realized it was him, from his laughter, you rolled your eyes and sighed.
"I thought you were going home?" You questioned, picking up your pencil while he took the seat next to you. You guys didn't have desks, your classrooms had green tables with blue chairs instead.
Tadashi took your eraser, and tried to balanced it on his index finger.
"Well, I felt like you would need help. My best friend sensor went off, and here I am." He grinned, and you couldn't help but giggle.
"You're right," you groaned, "I can't do this dumb essay. Why do we even have to write about such trivial things?"
"It doesn't have to be an essay, and trivial?" He was a genius at science, and math, yet he had an average vocabulary most times.
"It means not important," you explained, taking back your eraser, "what did you do? Did you finish already?" It was most likely that he did, and when he said he didn't, you were surprised. Your mouth parted open, and you jabbed your pencil into his arm while you sneered at him.
He waved you away, taking out his notebook from the heavy backpack.
"We just have to write about our heaven, or utopia. Whatever Ms. Lance said." He said, uncapping his pen. He rarely used a pencil, he didn't make mistakes very often.
"They're not even suppose to teach religion in school." You scoffed.
Tadashi glanced at your paper, noticing all the smudged eraser marks and the gray shades on the side of your hand.
"It's not religious, Ms. Lance said that everyone has their own type of perfect place, not specifically a heaven. Besides, we're only writing the first draft, don't worry too much about it." He insisted, already writing his name and title.
You only had a few words down on your lined paper, and you were constantly sighing in frustration.
As Tadashi wrote away, you laid your head on the notebook, the pencil clenched in your hand. You watched him, and couldn't help but smile. He was the top student in your grade, the two of you were in the second year of high school, almost third.
Eventually, his glances at you became a full stare. His eyebrows were furrowed, and he tapped the end of his pen against his chin.
"Don't give up," Tadashi patted your head, "what do you have so far?" He asked.
You only lifted up your head a little so he could pull it out and read it.
He breathed out the words as he read, and you found the quickness in his eyes as it moved form left to right and how he chewed on the end of his pen fascinating.
"It's not that bad, except you've been writing about food the whole time." He eyed you, "My perfect place includes strawberries, and hamburgers. Along with fries, and maybe a couple of salads." Tadashi chuckled and slid it back to you.
"I don't have a perfect place, or heaven! Besides, when we die, we just get buried." You grunted, picking your head up as if it weighed a hundred pounds.
"Maybe we get reincarnated? Or reborn, maybe become ghosts."
"Reincarnation doesn't exist, and neither does being reborn. Ghosts?" You thought about it for a moment, "Maybe."
Tadashi shrugged, and then returned back to his work.
"What did you write about?" You peeked over, and he quickly covered his paper.
You raised your eyebrows, and gave him puppy eyes, still hovering over his side.
"I wrote about Hiro, Aunt Cass, machines, and cures." He answered, still not retrieving his hands. You sat back down, and looked down at your own paper.
You crumpled it up, and put it aside near the other pile of ripped and crumpled papers. Then you scribbled down your name and date on a new paper, however, that was all you had. Your name, and date.
Tadashi was about done with his first draft, and checked your paper.
"Look at the world differently." He instructed, putting his notebook away.
You didn't say anything, and wrote in hasty letters My perfect place is but that was it. Your mind was blank and you couldn't think of anything else.
The sky was getting darker, and it was getting late. It was also winter, and all the teachers were packing up to leave already.
"Let's walk home together, and I'll help you brainstorm then, yeah?" Tadashi offered, standing up and you did the same without saying anything.
When the two of you were done packing up, you both said bye to anybody else was there and exited the school. The outside was a bit chilly, colder than usually. The sun was already going down, and almost all the cars were gone. No kids were out chasing each other or just hanging around.
"Okay, do you really not have a perfect place?" Tadashi inquired.
"I think I do, I just don't know what it is yet." You replied, zipping up your thin jacket all the way.
"Is everything imperfect to you?" Tadashi asked, hands gripping on his backpack straps.
"Not exactly, I just don't believe in complete perfection." You answered, taking long strides on the pavement. You stuffed your hands in your pockets, and shivered.
"Why not?"
You bit your lower lip, pondering for a good answer, then you shrugged. "Nothing's perfect, and that's not bad, perfection varies so much, y'know? Actually, I don't know, I'll figure out what to write for the draft."
Tadashi loosened his grasp on the straps, and put his arm over your shoulder.
"So, you have no heaven? No utopia? Remember, she said heaven is different for everyone." He told you.
"I guess my heaven is where my mom lives forever, ironically and we'd laugh a lot." You said, shuffling closer to him a little, for warmth.
The two of you didn't live that close to each other, but it wasn't a far distant either. So, Tadashi decided to just walk you to your home and walk back by himself, despite your protests.
"I think that's a good perfect place. Mine revolves around helping everyone." He beamed, and shoved his hands into his pockets.
You smiled, he was always a kind person, and you loved that. He was so positive, always trying to look at the pros before the cons. He was the optimist, and you were the realist.
"You don't want to become a doctor though, right?"
He shook his head, and both of you took a sharp turn.
"I want to create something that can help a doctor, or just generally help. A doctor robot, or something." Tadashi grinned.
The two of you were in silence for the rest of the time, and he greeted your mom first before dashing off. She enjoyed Tadashi's company, seeing that he was a bright kid. She didn't worry about much, she trusted you.
"Bye, [Y/N]!" He waved his hand, while getting smaller.
You waved back, and your mother stood behind you, her hands on your shoulders. Once Tadashi was gone, the two of you went back in and started making dinner together.
It was macaroni and cheese, meaning she didn't have time to buy groceries, or money.
"You have homework?" She questioned, while pouring in the cheese powder.
"I have to write something." You answered, watching her from the side. It was actually just her cooking when it came to mac and cheese, due to your previous kitchen incidents.
"Oh," your mom poured some milk in the pot, "About what?"
You sat down at the small table, and propped your elbow on it and rested your head on your palm.
"Heaven."
She paused in her movement, your mom was somewhat religious, but not really. She would pray every now and then, however, she never forced you to when she did. When your dad was here, she use to.
"Like what happens after you die?" Your mom stirred very slowly.
"Yeah, something like that. It's more like our perfect place actually, our paradise, utopia." You responded, and scanned your kitchen. Spotless tiled floors, beige walls, and plates piled up in the sink. You groaned, that meant you were doing the dishes tonight.
Your mom didn't say anything after that, and continued to make the food. Soon, you set up the two bowls, forks, and cups with juice without saying anything either.
It was like that until the mac and cheese were in the bowls and both of you were seated.
"Am I in that perfect place? Is. ." Her voice went quiet, and she closed her mouth.
You knew what she was going to ask, and shook your head while scooping up a mouthful of mac and cheese.
"You're in it, dad's not." You muffled while chewing. Those thoughts of hers didn't agitate you anymore, at first it did, then it just became whatever. It wasn't often, yet it happened so much that you were use to it.
"Is Tadashi in it?" She smirked at you, winking. Of course, the motherly side of her didn't want you to date or anything, but she was sort of rooting for it. "Is he in your perfect place?"
You felt your cheeks get warm, and dropped your spoon in your bowl.
"I actually haven't thought about that, I shouldn't be thinking about boys." You chided, trying to return back to eating without feeling the flutters in your stomach. You always found him captiving, though you didn't want to think too much about it.
Your mom chuckled, then finished up her bowl.
Fortunately, your mom said she would wash the dishes so you could finish your homework, and also reminded you to include Tadashi before you went up the stairs.
When you went into your room, you actually kicked off your pants and socks then plopped down onto your bed.
What was really was your perfect place anyways?
The questioned lingered in your mind, and you eventually called Tadashi through the house phone. Your mom didn't have enough money to buy phones for the both of you.
It didn't ring for a very long time, he had his own phone.
"Call for help?" He asked immediately, and you laughed lightly.
"You're right." You admitted, while taking out your notebook and pencil. You moved to your desk, turning on your desk lamp, and put your house phone on speaker.
You heard some high-pitched voice in the background and you knew it was Hiro.
"What's your family doing?"
Tadashi heaved and exhaled intensely, "Well, I was trying to help Aunt Cass cook. Then you called, and Hiro wants to say hi to you." He grunted.
"Oh! Then go on cooking, I can do this homework!" You said, bringing the phone closer to your ear, forgetting the speaker was on. You heard Hiro shriek and you winced, pulling the phone away from you.
"We said not to get too close to the oven." Tadashi spoke, and Hiro cried in the background. "Sorry, [Y/N], Hiro might've got a burn and I need to help him..." He explained quickly.
You turned off the speaker and returned the phone to your ear.
"It's fine, I can do this. Goodluck with Hiro!" And he hung up before you could.
You ripped out the written paper, and wrote down your name and the date neatly. Your mind still couldn't think of anything, so you recalled Tadashi's help tips and ended up brainstorming on the new paper.
My perfect place is. . .
Mom living forever Tadashi growing up with me Endless supply of food Lots of fluffy animals Aunt Cass' cooking
You groaned, and couldn't think of anything else. It was just a first draft, but you wanted it to be a good one. Go hard or go home, right? Besides, it also needed to be a page long essay or a page and a half poem.
"I'm going to have a long shower, okay?" Your mom said, scaring you a little. She stood at the doorway, her shirt wet from washing the dishes.
"Okay, Mom." You replied, focusing back onto the paper in front of you.
You listened to her heavy footsteps getting lighter as she went down the hall before actually putting full attention to your homework.
Honestly, nothing was coming into your mind. Why was it so hard? You often fantasized about great things, why was it now that you couldn't think of anything?
I'll make a poem, you pondered. You never liked essays too much anyways, it involved a lot of work and not enough passion. You liked to be strong, yet you were in average rambles, whereas Tadashi liked to be soft but had a definite direction.
The two of you were contradicting friends, and you didn't mind really. Opposites attract?
You shook your head with the thought of that, you had to focus on school and only school. Besides, love didn't last. Your dad use to kiss your mother every morning and hour, however, he left without much of a goodbye.
At first it was quiet, but then you heard your mom singing from the bathroom. She was singing some song she always sung in the shower, though you could never figure out the song.
It had a sad melody to it, your mom sang it loudly.
The only perfect place you could think of now was where your mom was always happy, and she didn't have to act like she was.
Tadashi glanced at the time on his phone, it was close to midnight. Hiro was snoring away, beside him. Hiro was too scared to sleep by himself, even though he was ten.
The prompt was still in his head, the one you were getting frustrated over at your house.
He ended up writing another response after dinner, though he folded it up and tucked it between the pages in his notebook.
"My perfect place is," Tadashi thought of your answer and chuckled, it was all about food. Also, what you said earlier about what happens when someone died was still in his head too.
The reality of it was that the person would get buried, and maybe that was also. However, Tadashi also believed in rebirth, not exactly reincarnation, maybe. There was no definite answer for him, and he didn't want to think too much of it.
"If I were to die," he switched up the prompt, and his lips pursed into a thin line, and he didn't know what to finish the statement with.
Hiro turned around suddenly, and his eyes were half opened.
"You're going to die?" Hiro gasped, quietly. He was waking up a bit more, and he even lifted up his head a little.
Tadashi chuckled and ruffled Hiro's hair. "Nope, never." Hiro understood what death was, and Tadashi only sugarcoated it because there was a glimpse of pain in Hiro's eyes when he asked that.
"I want you to live forever, and make robots with me forever. I like how you dissemble and make things."
"I'll live forever then, with you, and Aunt Cass."
"And [Y/N]!" Hiro was wide awake now, grinning and the gap on his front teeth warmed up Tadashi's heart.
Tadashi had a small smile and nodded his head, getting more tired. His eyes were already getting heavy, and his body was more relaxed. This felt like his perfect place, where everything was okay and nothing hurt.
He slowly closed his eyes, along with Hiro and the two drifted off to sleep together.
A/N: This story has continuity, and will not be short stories! Or maybe it should, oh my gosh I am now thinking about it. Short stories or?
Feedback, please!