*A.N.: So, I wrote this chapter a while ago, but I forgot to post it. The next chapter is on my to-do list, which will probably be tackled when school lets out May 8th.*

Hiro was used to breaking unnecessary rules.

-No gummy bears before dinner.-

Don't get caught.

-No tinkering after midnight when there's school the next day.-

Tadashi sleeps like a log, and never notices as long as everything is cleaned up in the morning.

-No experiments involving Mochi.-

Then what was the darn cat good for?

...

-No horror movies.-

"They'll give you nightmares, Hiro." "You're too young to watch them." "You don't need that stuff in your head."

Blah, blah, blah.

Maybe that rule would have applied to him when he was younger, but he was thirteen, and a genius. Practically an adult, in his opinion. He could handle one little R-rated horror movie.

Besides that, the premise was right up his alley. A group of popular students being haunted by the tech-savvy ghost of a recently deceased geek? Where the circumstances surrounding said geek's death were questionable? And the ghost uses technology to enact his revenge?

Perfect.

Hiro slid the disk into the side of the TV before plopping himself onto the couch and bundling into his cocoon of blankets. He shifted until he was comfortably sprawled out on the cushions. Once he was comfortable, he realized the remote control was just out of reach, so he stretched to reach it.

A high-pitched scream from the TV made Hiro jump and tense before he realized it was the main menu's background preview, complete with typical static-filled screens and jarred pictures. Finally getting hold of the remote, Hiro pressed play and resettled against the arm of the couch.

Aunt Cass was busy downstairs in the café, and Tadashi had a project that, while he was being super secretive about it, promised to keep him at school until late that evening. Hiro had the house to himself. He momentarily considered getting up to turn the lights on again, but decided against it.

He'd be fine.

Tadashi rubbed at the side of his face as he trudged his way up the stairs. He'd stayed at the lab far past his usual hours, as Baymax, or what he hoped would one day earn the name, decided it would be a good idea to attack its creator. He really hoped there wouldn't be bruising in the morning.

As he turned to make his way up the second flight of stairs, a dim, flickering light caught his attention. Glancing over, he saw by the light of the TV that Hiro was once again precariously sprawled out on the edge of the couch, limbs and blankets hanging askew as he seemingly defied gravity in order to remain off the floor. He was also dead asleep.

Sighing and pinching the bridge of his nose, Tadashi approached the couch and debated on the merits of trying to wake him up versus carrying him up a flight of stairs while exhausted and battered from Baymax's flailing arms. Tadashi had almost reached Hiro when a scream stopped him in his tracks and a rush of adrenalin coursed through his body.

A split-second of attempting to find the source of the cry was enough for him to finally notice the movie currently displaying its menu on the screen.

He didn't.

Except, of course he had. When was the last time Hiro had explicitly followed directions from anyone? Tadashi felt a stress headache begin to push at his temples as he considered the sleepless nights to come, as Hiro inevitably would rapidly devolve into paranoia. He was actually shocked that he had managed to fall asleep on the couch in the first place.

Maybe it wouldn't be so bad this time. Maybe Hiro had fallen asleep before the movie got too bad. Maybe the whole crisis would be averted and everyone in the house would be able to retain his or her preferred sleep schedule. ...and maybe dragons and unicorns would start dating.

Tadashi began to mentally prepare himself for the coming days and looked at the bundle, searching for a possible way to lift it in order to carry the currently sleeping knucklehead upstairs without waking him. Perhaps he could still salvage this night's sleep. Goodness knows he wouldn't get any rest in the near future.

He would never be able to bring himself to ignore Hiro, especially when his little brother knew how to adopt the frightened puppy look that Tadashi wished he were immune to after years of dealing with it. As it was, he'd be there for Hiro through the impending nightmares, even though he had brought this on himself. The rule regarding horror films had been put in place specifically because of Hiro's previous reactions to things that scared him, whether they were supposed to be scary or not.

Though he probably couldn't remember, when Hiro had been younger, there had been a popular documentary about a woman and her friendly gorilla. The gorilla never expressed itself as violent or aggressive in any way, but whenever it came on screen, Hiro would hide his face and eventually he ran out of the room, crying about the big black monster that was going to eat the lady.

They never viewed it again after that, but for months Hiro would wake up screaming about the monster and how it was going to eat Tadashi and take away Aunt Cass, just like the monster in the film. Trying to convince him that the gorilla was friendly and would never hurt him was futile, and eventually Tadashi gave Hiro a little box that lit up in different colors when the buttons were pressed. He said that the red button would make a noise that would keep the gorilla away from him, like a dog whistle, even though he couldn't hear it himself.

Tadashi didn't consider it a lie... more of a vacuous truth. The button would keep the gorilla away if it were coming after him. Since it wasn't coming after him, the button's functionality didn't matter. He just wanted to get more than a couple of hours of sleep at night. Hiro, of course, believed him, and the nightmares quickly stopped after that.

Thoughts returning to the present, Tadashi realized there was no way that he could move Hiro from his current position when he was as physically tired as he was. When the scream echoed from the TV again, he reached over and turned it off, slipping the disc back into the box it had come in.

Offline... wonderful. Though, maybe this would help with Hiro's recent addiction to video games.

Hiro began to mumble in his sleep, his eyebrows pulling together in response to whatever was playing in his head. When Hiro's frown became more prominent, Tadashi decided to bite the bullet and try to wake him as gently as he could so they could both go upstairs. If he left him on the couch, Hiro might wake from a nightmare alone, and he was far more difficult to console if there was time for his mind to conjure terrible theories about the fates of the other members of the house.

"Hiro," Tadashi knew better than to try and touch him if he seemed to be already in a nightmare. He had learned the hard way that Hiro's scrawny limbs could do some damage, particularly to the face, if he was provoked or scared.

Tadashi crouched at the head of the couch and spoke louder, hoping that he wouldn't wake their Aunt, who had supposedly gone to bed already. "Come on, buddy. You need to wake up. Hiro."

At the second iteration of his name, Hiro jolted awake, but quickly lost his sense of balance and teetered off the couch. Tadashi winced at the thud that resulted from Hiro meeting the floor, though thankfully the multiple blankets that Hiro had piled around him broke the fall.

"-mmph. Whas... 'Dashi?" Hiro looked up at his brother through sleep-bleared eyes. There was no panic, so his mind hadn't retained whatever he'd been dreaming of.

"Care to explain this?" Tadashi tapped the DVD box twice on his fallen brother's head and earned a sheepish and guilty grin in return.

"Uh... I'm holding it for a friend?" Hiro looked up at his brother with what was possibly the fakest smile he could muster. Tadashi was unimpressed.

"...you couldn't even come up with something original? You're really losing your edge." Teasing was safe, and Hiro didn't seem to be acting strange, so maybe he had fallen asleep before the movie. Or maybe he hadn't started it at all.

One can hope...

"Would you believe me if I had?" Hiro began to gather up the blankets, and did a double take when Tadashi reached over to help pick them up. "What happened to your face?"

So he hadn't escaped bruising. Just perfect.

"My project decided it wasn't colorful enough... and don't change the subject."

"Hehe, only the ultimate nerd advances from bullies to getting beat up by his own creation."

"Unbelievable." Tadashi dropped the blankets he had gathered onto Hiro's head, grinning when they slid off to reveal that they had made Hiro's hair even more disheveled than it had been before. Hiro's pout might also have something to do with it. "Now, come on. You know you aren't supposed to watch horror movies. Especially not..." Tadashi checked the front of the box and his eyes widened in disbelief. "R-rated ones. Hiro!"

"Who says I watched it?" Hiro had finally gained a hold of all of the blankets and began to make his way to the stairs.

Tadashi paused, realizing that he didn't have any proof that Hiro had watched it, but... "So, you enjoy falling asleep to the sound of a girl screaming on loop? That's still pretty messed up."

"Maybe I find it relaxing."

"Hiro." Tadashi followed his brother up the stairs, his patience wearing thinner than he'd like with the stress of school and upcoming midterms and now this. He wished Hiro would just be honest with him so they could at least be on the same page.

"Whaaaat?" Hiro dumped the pile of blankets on his bed, and turned to face his older brother, arms folded. He relaxed his posture when he got a good look at his brother and noticed dark bruises under his eyes that most likely weren't caused by whatever he'd been working on... at least not directly. He looked so tired. Hiro sighed. "Fine. I watched it. Happy? But it wasn't that bad, and if you look at the box, the rating is for explicit scenes, not gore or anything. I'll be fine."

"That's not much better, Hiro. You're thirteen, you don't need to be watching any of this stuff." Tadashi set the box down on his dresser, running a hand over the back of his neck as he looked back at Hiro. "Why did you feel the need to do this? Why was any of this necessary?"

Hiro scuffed the ground with his foot, looking down to avoid his brother's gaze. "It doesn't matter. It's done, can't you just let it go? It isn't that big a deal."

"Maybe this wasn't a huge deal, but you can't just lie to me and go behind my back with stuff like this." Tadashi took a steadying breath as he pushed the palms of his hands into his eyes, before running them back through his hair, mussing it slightly. "How am I supposed to help you, if I don't even know what's going on?"

"You don't need to always help me. I can do things on my own, you know." Hiro almost took his words back when he saw Tadashi's face fall, but he didn't think it would do much good, and it would be a lie, anyway. He decided to soften the blow instead. "I'll come to you if I really need help, and you'll notice if I'm actually in trouble, so you don't need to worry about me, okay?"

Tadashi shook his head, letting out a sigh as he decided to let this slide, at least for the night. "Alright, knucklehead... just know I'll always be here, whenever you need anything."

Hiro grinned, burrowing his way under the mountain of blankets on his bed. "Of course you will, nerd, where else would you be?"