Music Choices

Click. Click. Click.

Hiro let out a frustrated huff and spun around in his chair, distracted from the bot designs he was trying to complete on the computer. Anna sat cross-legged on his bed, playing with a bottle cap. Her fingers pressed down on the top, making it click.

"Would you stop that?" Hiro asked, irritated that he'd been interrupted. Anna's head snapped up, her blue eyes wide and innocent.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I'm just bored," she said as she placed the metal bottle cap on the dresser next to his bed. He turned back to his computer and a moment later he heard her start to click her tongue.

He rolled his eyes and grabbed his red iPod from one of the drawers of his desk. Rolling over to the bed in his chair, he handed Anna the device.

"Here, entertain yourself."

She gingerly took it and held it between two fingers, like she wasn't quite sure what she was supposed to do with it. Hiro had never shown her how to operate it, but he figured she'd figure it out pretty easily. It was a simple device that only required her to turn it on and click the buttons in the middle to select music choices. He had already taught her the basics of how to use the computer, and was now focusing on more complicated tasks, such as bringing up new tabs. Baby steps, he told himself when his patience was stretched to the max. She was from the 1840's, after all, and knew nothing about computers. However, now he was trying to finish up some new designs, and she was proving to be a distraction.

He watched her inspect the device for a moment before turning around in his chair. He was proved wrong in his assumption that she would figure it out, when he heard a swishing sound. Hiro turned to find Anna swinging the earbuds in a circular motion above her head, a fascinated and excited look on her face.

"This is fun!" she laughed.

Hiro rolled his eyes and finally just stood from the chair, walking over to the bed. "No, that's not what you do."

He took the iPod from her hands and grabbed both earbuds. Leaning forward, he placed one in each ear. His fingers brushed against her hair, and he realized just how soft it was. He had the sudden strange urge to run his fingers through it, but knew she might think he was creepy if he did. His heart started to hammer against his ribs when he realized just how close they were. She gave him a smile and his breath stalled in his throat. Why did he always seem to get like this when she was around? Her eyes seemed so blue and big this close.

"Nothing is happening," she stated, bringing him out of his trance. He quickly leaned back and cleared his throat, face heating up.

He reached down and turned the device on. Black Dahlia popped up, picking up near the beginning of the song, where Hiro had left off when he last shut it down. Within seconds Anna's eyes widened and a surprised look crossed her face, bordering on shock.

"The singer…he sounds so…angry," she stated with a frown, pulling out one earbud.

"Um, yeah, that's kind of the point," Hiro said.

"I don't like angry music," Anna said, pulling out the other earbud and handing it over to Hiro. He let out a huff. There had to be some way to keep her amused that wouldn't be a distraction to him, and he doubted she would like the other songs he had on his iPod if she didn't like the sound of Hollywood Undead. He had mostly metal bands, like Breaking Benjamin, My Chemical Romance, and Skillet—nothing she would like.

Finally, he grabbed the red device in one fist and walked over to another computer on Tadashi's side of the room. Hiro knew he wouldn't mind if Anna used his computer. He was at his nerd school right now, so it's not like he would know anyway. He fired it up and brought up a music downloading sight before motioning for Anna to come over. She walked over and plopped down in the chair in front of the computer. He gestured to the list of the most popular songs at the moment, all listed on the screen. He unplugged the earbuds and hooked them up to the speakers so the music wouldn't be a distraction.

"Here, you can download some songs from here. Just click that button to listen to it—" Hiro demonstrated it to Anna, and then moved the mouse over to another button. "And if you like it, then click this button to download it. Okay? You can add a few songs to keep yourself entertained."

He hooked up the iPod to the computer, and then made sure she knew how to operate the technology in front of her before he walked back to his side of the room. There, that should keep her busy for a few hours, and if he was lucky, maybe even a few days. If she had a few songs on his iPod she'd be entertained long enough for him to finish his blueprints, at the very least.

Tadashi knew something was wrong the moment Hiro walked into their shared room and plopped down on his bed. The exasperated and over-the-top sigh just proved that he wanted to be asked what was bothering him. His brother may be a genius, but he was also very predictable. Tadashi couldn't help the smile that slid across his lips, but made sure a more neutral expression was on his face when he turned around to look at him. Hiro had his arms crossed and a sour look on his face. A red iPod was clutched in one hand, with the earbuds dangling from the white cord that connected it to the device.

"Is something wrong?"

Hiro lifted his gaze. "Anna filled up all the space on my iPod." Tadashi let out a snort of laughter, and Hiro immediately narrowed his brown eyes at him. "It's not funny!"

"Hey, you were the one who showed her how to download music, and you did say she could put some songs on it to entertain herself."

"Yeah, but…I didn't know she'd put like, hundreds of songs on it! And they're all girly songs too!" Hiro groaned.

"Just because it's not metal doesn't automatically mean it's girly." Tadashi wheeled his chair over and held out his hand. "Let me see. It can't be that bad."

Hiro sat up and scooted over to the edge of the bed, handing over the iPod. Tadashi took it and started scrolling through the artists. He recognized most of them as recent female singers. He had a hard time not laughing at some choices, and couldn't help but raise an eyebrow at others. Tadashi kept going, seeing that most of the artists Anna had added were one's Hiro would never listen to on his own—Arianna Grande, Beyoncé, Demi Lovato, Katy Perry—suddenly something above the K section caught his eye and he scrolled back up.

"Wait, she listens to Iggy Azalea?"

Hiro nodded. "Only one song. I swear, if I ever hear Fancy again, it'll be too soon. And Royals. I'm sick of that song too."

Tadashi pressed his lips together to keep from laughing and continued. When he reached the N section, his eyebrows shot up.

"Nicki Minaj?" he questioned. Tadashi couldn't wrap his mind around it. How could sweet little Anna—who nearly had a heart attack when she learned that women could show their legs off without causing a scandal, and who wondered why women would ever want to wear 'trousers', as she called them—listen to someone as…well, risqué as Nicki Minaj?

Hiro scrunched his nose. "I know, right? She's ruined my iPod."

Tadashi shook away the thoughts and kept going, his shocked expression shifting into one of amusement when he reached the T's. "Somehow it doesn't surprise me she likes Taylor Swift."

"She downloaded all of her albums—even the Christmas one!" Hiro exclaimed, throwing his hands up. "That's like, 100 songs, right there!"

Finally Tadashi reached the end and shook his head. He wasn't one to judge, but when he saw the questionable music choices of a girl from the 1840's, he had to wonder what happened. "Well, I guess you learn something new every day."

"In her defense, I don't think she really understands what most of the songs are talking about," Hiro said with a small shrug. "All she talks about is how 'pretty' the music sounds."

Tadashi almost let out a sigh of relief. He had grown to see Anna as somewhat of a little sister, and felt protectiveness over her that almost matched the one he had for Hiro. His thoughts were interrupted when Hiro let out a short laugh.

"You should see her singing along with Super Bass—she's gets all the lyrics wrong."

"I'm just glad she doesn't understand what they're singing about. I'd hate for her to get ideas in her head."

Hiro furrowed his eyebrow as he took his iPod back from Tadashi. "What do you mean?"

"Well, studies show that the music that people listen to has an effect on how they think. I'd hate for Anna to become…well, you know."

At that Hiro's eyes widened, like he'd just realized something. He bit down on his lip as a slow grin spread across his face—a mischievous look that always preceded a bad idea. Before Tadashi could say anything Hiro sprung out of bed and nearly tripped as he raced down the stairs. He could hear his voice calling out through the house.

"Hey, Anna, do you know what the song Bang Bang is about?" He could almost hear the glee in his voice.

"Um, not really," came her softer reply.

"Want me to tell you what it's about?"

"Sure."

Tadashi was out of his chair in two seconds flat, racing after his younger brother. "Hiro, don't you dare!"

This one-shot is set in the same universe as Days Of Future Past, only it's present day, not 2045, like in the other story. Because of that and some other details, this didn't really fit anywhere in there, so it got cut. But I still liked it a lot, so here it is! Most of the stories I post on this will be set during that timeline too, but since they would take the story in a whole different direction, they won't be included in the story.

Hope you all enjoyed! :)