"Hey Hiro!" Fred says, coming up behind the young inventor in his lab at SFIT. "Watcha doing?"
Usually whenever Hiro was hard at work at his desk, he was tinkering with some invention or project, but oddly enough today he was hunched over a piece of paper, seeming deep in thought, and Fred couldn't help but feel the need to investigate. Ever since his boyfriend, Tadashi, had died earlier on in the year in a tragic accident (well, the fire hadn't exactly been an accident, but Tadashi's death at least had not been an intentional result of it) Fred had been making a point of keeping an eye out on his late lover's little brother.
After the fire had happened, Hiro had been in a really dark place (everyone who had been close to Tadashi had been, really), and while he was doing a lot better now, Fred was doing everything that he could to make sure that Hiro didn't slide back into the depression that he'd been lost in for so long. Especially with Christmas coming up-the first Christmas the Hiro would be spending without his beloved elder sibling-Fred was keeping an even closer eye on him than before. And seeing the usually constantly-moving teen sitting so quietly with such a pensive look on his face was raising some red flags.
"Oh, hey, Fred!" Hiro looks slightly startled but not displeased as he turns to see the other man standing behind him. "Is everything okay?"
"I was actually about to ask you the same thing, amigo," Fred answers, coming over to the desk and glancing down at the paper lying on it. "What have you got there?"
"Hey, no peeking!" Hiro cries, quickly flipping the paper over and looking just the tiniest bit defensive.
"Sorry, sorry!" Fred apologizes, putting his hands up in mock surrender. "Didn't mean to spy on you or anything! Those plans for a secret project?"
"Not exactly…" Hiro mumbles, his cheeks turning slightly red. "It's just… This sort of thing is supposed to be private, y'know? At least that's what Tadashi always said… He'd never let me see his, he said that no one is supposed to see the letter but the person you're sending it to."
"...Wait... Hiro, are you writing a love letter?" Fred asks, his thoughts racing. Oh gosh, did Hiro have a crush on someone? That would be incredibly adorable! But at the same time it was also terrifying! Hiro was only fourteen-he'd probably been maybe eleven or twelve during the grade in high school when they had sex education. Had he even been allowed to be in the classroom for that lesson? And if not, had anyone given Hiro the talk? If not, was he, Fred, morally obligated to make sure that his young friend was educated about the things that could happen when you were dating someone? The answer was probably yes. Oh man, he was not prepared to give Hiro the talk! Tadashi was supposed to be the one doing this, not him! But there wasn't really any other option-
"A love letter? Fred, are you crazy? Of course it's not a love letter!" Hiro cries, looking thoroughly disgusted. "Why the hell would you even think that?"
Well, apparently Fred was, at least for the moment, off the hook, and he breathes a deep sigh of relief.
"Sorry, I don't know what I was thinking!" Fred quickly answers, glad for the timely save. Still, now his curiosity about who the letter was actually for had been piqued and he was determined to find out.
"So, who are you writing to?" he asks, leaning against the desk and getting comfortable, trying to ignore the ache in his heart as he brain helpfully points out how many times he'd been in a similar position with Tadashi.
Part of him expected Hiro to give him a fight about telling him who he was writing to, and Fred was fully prepared to playfully cajole his young friend until he got an answer out of him. The last thing he expected was Hiro to look up at him and answer in the sincerest, most candid voice, as if it should have been perfectly obvious,
"It's Christmas, isn't it? I'm writing to Santa."
"You're… What?" Fred blinks in surprise. Surely he'd heard that wrong. There was no way that Hiro could have said-
"I'm writing my Christmas letter to Santa," Hiro repeats, shrugging slightly and looking slightly embarrassed. "I know, I know. It probably seems really stupid and selfish to be writing a Christmas list to Santa this year. I almost didn't want to. But then I remembered how Tadashi always made sure that I wrote a letter every year, and I didn't want to disappoint him, so I thought I should go ahead and write it now so Santa has time to get it. I… I know that he probably already knows, but I wanted to make sure that if nothing else he knows why Tadashi… Why Tadashi couldn't write him a letter this year... I don't want Santa to think that Tadashi forgot about him or stopped believing in him! Tadashi would never do that!"
Fred feels his mouth gaping open, unable to fully process what he was hearing. Hiro was fourteen years old and far more jaded than even a lot of other teens his age. Plus he was someone who firmly relied on facts and science, someone who would endlessly question something until he got conclusive proof. There was no way that he could really- He couldn't actually believe that Santa was- That Santa was real, right?
"H-Hiro…" Fred starts to stammer out. "Y-You know that Santa… That he's not-"
"That he's not what?" Hiro answers, a disarmingly innocent and trusting look on his face that Fred had only ever seen there whenever Hiro was listening to or talking about Tadashi. And Fred felt his heart breaking, because there was no way that he could shatter this illusion for Hiro. He wasn't sure if Hiro actually believed in Santa, or if this was just something that had been a tradition for the two Hamada brothers that Hiro was still clinging onto (in spite of what logic said) as a last vestige of something that he'd shared with his elder sibling. Whatever the case, Santa was very clearly a major part of the magic of the holiday season for Hiro. And Fred wasn't about to take that away from him.
"Um, what I was trying to say…" Fred mumbles, trying to think of a way to save this as Hiro's eyes (usually so full of cynicism and distrust but at the moment oddly soft in an almost childlike way) bore into his rather guilty feeling soul.
"I was just trying to say that Santa's not going to think that Tadashi forgot about him!" Fred finally manages to blurt out. "O-Of course he won't, so don't you even worry about that for a second!"
"Oh! I'm glad to hear that you think so!" Hiro gives him a relieved looking grin. "Still… I think I'll keep it in the letter, just to be safe…"
"S-Sure, you do that!" Fred agrees before a sudden feeling of dread washes over him as another realization hits him. Tadashi-Tadashi was clearly the reason that Hiro so firmly believed in Santa (if he did actually believe in him, which the evidence did seem to be pointing towards.) For someone as disillusioned with the world as Hiro, there must have been a lot of proof of Santa's existence being presented to him in order to keep him believing. And Fred had a sinking feeling that he knew exactly who had been "finding" (and quite possibly outright manufacturing) said evidence.
"H-How exactly do you know that Santa's been to your house on Christmas?" Fred slowly asks.
"Because every year on Christmas he always arrived the same way. Dashi and I would be in our room reading 'The Night Before Christmas' and then we'd hear reindeer hooves on the roof," Hiro answers, his eyes lighting up. "Tadashi always said it would be rude to go down while Santa was putting out the toys, but after about ten minutes Dashi would finally let us go downstairs and the presents would be under the tree and the cookies would be gone and there'd be a note from Santa thanking us for the cookies. And every year there was always everything on my Christmas list, no matter how weird or obscure-one year I asked for pizza flavor gummy bears just to test him, and there was a whole bag of them! And I always made sure that no one ever saw my list, not even Dashi, so how could it be anyone but Santa?"
"I-I guess that makes sense…" Fred slowly agrees.
"Why? Doesn't Santa come to your house too?" Hiro asks with a small frown.
"Oh, yeah, totally!" Fred quickly stammers out. "I was just- I was wanting to compare evidence, is all!"
"Oh. Okay. Cool." Hiro nods before glancing back down at his list. "So, um…"
"Oh, right!" Fred cries. "Sorry, I'll, um… I'll just leave you in peace to keep writing your list! J-Just hit me up if you want to hang out later or something, okay?"
"Sounds good! Thanks, Fred!" Hiro beams at him as the fanboy slowly backs his way out of the office. Fred keeps a smile plastered on his face until he carefully closes the door behind him. And then he takes off running like his life depended on it, because if he was going to make sure that Hiro's first Christmas without Tadashi wasn't going to be any more life-shattering than it already probably was going to be, he was going to need a lot of help.
"Guys! Guys! We have a major situation!" Fred cries as he bursts into Honey Lemon's office where the rest of their friends were all hanging out.
"What is it?" Honey Lemon asks, looking startled as she glances up from her experiment. "Is something wrong?"
"Is there another villain attacking the city?" Gogo asks, dropping her screwdriver and standing up.
"No, it's nothing like that!" Fred answers, panting and slightly out of breath from his sprint (whew, he definitely needed to exercise more…)
"What is it, then?" Gogo demands as Fred tries to regain the use of his voice. "This better not be one of your stupid pranks because I was right in the middle of-"
"Hiro still believes in Santa!"
"He… What?" Wasabi, who was helping Honey Lemon with her project, blinks rapidly, as if he couldn't believe what he was hearing.
"You can't be serious." Gogo crosses her arms over her chest. "Have you met Hiro? There's no way that he believes in Santa, especially not at his age! Are you sure he wasn't just pranking you?"
"No, that's what I thought at first too!" Fred answers. "But he's completely serious! Apparently Tadashi went to a lot of trouble every year to make sure that Hiro kept believing that Santa is real, and this year he's not going to be there to do it, and Hiro's going to be heartbroken if he finds out that Santa isn't real on his first Christmas without Tadashi! We've got to do something about this!"
The others are all silent for a full minute, apparently trying to absorb this new information.
"Okay, so allowing for the possibility that maybe Hiro actually thinks that Santa is real," Gogo finally says with a frown. "Don't you think that maybe it's better for Hiro to learn the truth? He's got to find out at some point, and maybe it would be best to let him down gently."
"I would agree that long term that would probably be for the best," Fred agrees. "But he's already going to be really emotionally fragile this Christmas without having Tadashi there. You should have seen him writing his letter to Santa, he told me that he was writing to tell him what happened to Tadashi so that Santa wouldn't think that Tadashi had forgotten him! It would completely crush his spirit to find out that Santa isn't real this year of all years! Are you guys really okay with that happening?"
"...I don't know…" Wasabi says uncertainly. "I'd hate for Hiro to have a rough Christmas… But at the same time, Gogo does have a point, he does have to learn the truth at some point…"
"Are you guys really that heartless?" Fred cries. "Don't you remember how you felt when you found out that Santa wasn't real?"
"My parents never let us believe in Santa-we were lucky if we even got Christmas presents," Gogo answers dryly.
"That explains so much... " Fred quietly mutters.
"What did you just say?" Gogo glares suspiciously at him.
"Nothing!" Fred quickly covers before turning to Wasabi. "What about you?"
"...I think I kind of figured it out for myself when I was six," Wasabi answers with a shrug. "My parents talked about Santa but eventually my friends stopped believing in Santa so I did too and my parents just kind of let it go."
"But didn't that hurt? Letting go of that?" Fred presses.
"Not really? I mean, it's not like Santa was a huge part of my childhood."
"Okay, I swear, you guys have no Christmas spirit!" Fred cries before turning to Honey Lemon. "Honey, come on, back me up here! Surely you must have believed in Santa at some point!"
"At some point? I still do!" Honey Lemon answers, a determined smile making its way onto her face. "He just needs a little help sometimes, and I'm totally with you on helping out Hiro, Freddy!"
So that wasn't exactly the response that Fred had been expecting, but hey, any support that he could get right now he was going to take.
"Okay, so Honey Lemon's with me!" Fred says, trying to capitalize on his one success. "Come on, guys! I know you might have your doubts about Santa and all of this, but please-you know how freaking amazing Tadashi was and how he never would have done anything that he didn't think was safe and healthy for Hiro. At least for this year, can't we trust that he knew what he was doing and carry this on in his place?"
"...All right, fine," Wasabi sighs in defeat after a moment of silence. "I guess if it's what Tadashi would have wanted…"
"Thank you!" Fred grins before turning to Gogo. "Gogo? C'mon. Don't be the only Grinch here!"
"The Grinch is literally the only realistic Christmas character!" Gogo fires back, but Fred could see her resolve starting to slip.
"Gogo. Come on. Please? Please? Please, please, please please, please, plea-"
"Oh, will you just shut the fuck up already?" Gogo snarls. "Why do you have to be so annoying?"
"If I shut up will you agree to help?" Fred bargains.
"Gogo, come on! It'll be fun, and it's for a good cause!" Honey Lemon says, coming over to put her hands on her girlfriend's shoulders.
"...All right, fine, I'll help!" Gogo groans, and Fred grins victoriously-he should have known that Gogo wouldn't be able to resist Honey Lemon.
"Yes!" Fred cheers. "Okay, Operation Santa Claus is a go!"
"Do we really need a mission name for this?" Gogo sighs.
"Of course we do!"
"Fine, whatever! But what exactly are you expecting us to do?"
"That-is a very good question that I am going to be very quickly coming up with an answer to!"
The plan, as it turned out, was slightly convoluted, but Fred had a good feeling that it was going to work. He had to enlist Aunt Cass to get her permission to set it into motion, but apparently she'd been well aware of what Tadashi had done every Christmas Eve because she was more than happy to enlist the help of the teens to help make sure the Christmas magic stayed alive for Hiro for at least one more year. It was actually thanks to her help that Hiro's Christmas list secretly made its way from the mailman (it was a close call, Hiro always purposely gave his Santa letter to the mailman personally to ensure that no one else saw it, and Aunt Cass had had to practically ambush the postman halfway down the street-fortunately he was used to Tadashi doing this every year and, while a bit startled, was glad to help out) and into Fred's hands.
When Fred opened the letter in the privacy of his own room, he was more than prepared to find absolutely everything on the list for Hiro, no matter how hard he had to work to track it down. What he read, however, he was completely unprepared for.
Dear Santa,
It's me, Hiro. First of all, I wanted to say sorry again for the whole bot fighting thing. I know that Tadashi told me it was okay to send you a letter back in August apologizing so you'd know about it before Christmas, but I still wanted to apologize and hope that the fact that I've haven't gone to a bot fight in months and that I'm working really hard in school makes up for it.
Um… I'm not really sure how to tell you this, and I know you already probably know but I wanted to tell you personally. Tadashi… Tadashi died this year. He died trying to save someone he thought was innocent and in trouble. Which is why he can't send you a letter himself this year. I just wanted to make sure that you knew that so you wouldn't think that he stopped believing in you or anything. And I hope that maybe you can find it in your heart to keep him in a permanent place of honor on the good list because he is the best person to have ever walked on this planet and if anyone deserves it, he does.
Now I know you're probably still waiting to hear what I want for Christmas. And I know some years I've asked for some pretty crazy things, and you've always delivered. Santa… I know it's probably impossible, but I don't know who else to ask since no one else seems to be listening. I won't ask for anything else but this one thing. I will gladly trade ever getting any presents from you again in the future if you can somehow, some way, grant my wish. If there's any way that you can… Could you please, please somehow give me Tadashi back for Christmas? I mean, you're a saint, right? Saint Nicholas? So maybe you have some kind of pull with whoever's in charge of that sort of thing?
I know. I know that it's a really long shot. But I thought I'd just ask anyways because I have nothing else to lose. If nothing else… If there's any way that you can, could you please find some way to tell Tadashi that I love him and that I miss him, and that even if it's a long time before I see him again that I'm going to be okay? Thank you. I would really appreciate that.
Yours Sincerely (and Hopefully),
Hiro Hamada
Fred has to put the letter down to avoid the tears rolling down his cheeks from splashing onto the paper. Why? Why had Tadashi of all people had to have been taken away when so many people loved and needed him still? Didn't whoever was in charge of the universe see just how cruel and unfair that was?
Still. Fred had been through this argument in his head too many times to count, and sitting here crying over Hiro's letter wasn't going to make a difference any more than the other times that he'd cried over Tadashi since the fire. Roughly wiping his tears away, he stands up and grabs his coat, his resolve stiffening. Even if he couldn't get Tadashi back for Hiro, he was going to make sure that Hiro woke up on Christmas morning to the best damn presents that he'd ever gotten. Fred knew that it would in no way make up for the loss that Hiro was facing and that would probably only been multiplied tenfold by the arrival of Christmas morning without his older brother by his side. But it was something small that Fred could do to try to bring some sort of happiness to the holiday for Hiro, and he was going to do it to the damndest of his abilities.
"Fred? What are you doing here? ...And why do you have a suitcase with you?"
Right on schedule, at 5:00 pm on Christmas Eve, Fred was planted on the Hamada's front door steps. The rest of the team would arrive later to do their parts, but for now Fred was going to get the plan rolling.
"Hey, Hiro!" Fred waves, doing his best to look slightly embarrassed to really sell this. "I kind of um… Well I came over on the chance that maybe you'd be willing to help me out?"
"Help you out?" Hiro repeats. "Is everything okay?"
"Sort of… Well, not really. My parents decided last minute that they were going out of town for Christmas and they're leaving me all alone at the house since the staff are all going home to their families for the holiday… I really didn't want to be alone on Christmas so I was wondering if maybe… Maybe you guys would be willing to let me crash at your place? O-Only if it's not a bother to you!"
"Your parents are leaving you alone? On Christmas?!" Hiro cries, looking a mixture of horrified and slightly enraged.
"Pretty much…" Fred answers, rubbing the back of his neck. The sad thing was, Fred wasn't lying about being left home alone on Christmas. His dad he could understand-his dad was (secretly) an international superhero and had confided to him that he was in a very delicate stage of helping a guy that he'd rescued from some accident a few months ago and patched up in his secret super base to recover in time to get home to his own family for Christmas. His dad had promised to be home for Christmas night after returning the poor guy to his family in order to spend Christmas with his own son, and Fred was more than happy to give up a bit of time with his dad in order for someone else to be able to be back with their own family, and this worked perfectly with the plans he'd made with Aunt Cass to help Hiro have at least one more magical, Santa-filled Christmas.
His mom, on the other hand… As usual, she was just off on some fancy vacation in Europe-or maybe it was Hawaii? Fred couldn't really be bothered to keep track of where she was at this point. She'd long since made it clear that she didn't give a flying fuck about her son, and so Fred did his best to tell himself that he gave zero fucks about her either. It wasn't exactly true, but he was trying to believe it, anyways. He was incredibly grateful that Aunt Cass had told him that, even if it hadn't been for Operation Santa Claus, she would have been glad to have him stay with the family anyways. Fred didn't know if she suspected the fact that he and Tadashi had been dating (the two had never really had the chance to go public before the fire and the only person he'd ever confessed the fact to was Hiro), but it was still nice to know that she considered him a part of the family, even if she didn't know the full truth.
"Oh my gosh…" Hiro breathes, shaking his head, before swinging the door further open. "Shit, yeah, come right in! L-Let me just go check with Aunt Cass to make sure that she's okay with it, but as far as I'm concerned you're more than welcome to stay with us for the holidays-and as long as you need to, even after that!"
"Thanks, Hiro, you're the best," Fred says with a grateful smile.
"Hey, of course!" Hiro gently nudges Fred's arm. "Anything to help out a friend."
Fred breathes a sigh of relief as Hiro heads down the stairs to the Cafe to talk to Aunt Cass-thank goodness, he'd managed to plant himself, and Hiro didn't suspect a thing! Now as long as the rest of the night went just as smoothly, they might actually be able to pull this off! But in the meantime…
Casting a wary glance down the stairs, Fred quickly unzips his suitcase and starts emptying out the wrapped presents for Hiro, moving them into the designated linen cabinet that Aunt Cass had cleared out for him to hide the packages in so that Honey Lemon and Wasabi could sneak in later to hide them under the tree after "Santa" arrived.
He was just finishing up when he heard footsteps on the stairs. Panicking slightly, he shoves the last present in with a little more force than was strictly speaking necessary and shuts the door behind him.
"Hey, so I just talked to Aunt Cass and she said that it's totally fine for you to stay here!" Hiro says as he comes running back up the stairs, a grin on his face. "Come on, you can stay upstairs with me!"
"Thank you, I really, really appreciate this!" Fred tells him, trying to hide the fact that he was slightly out of breath as he follows Hiro up the stairs, dragging his now considerably lighter suitcase behind him.
"Fred, you're family," Hiro answers firmly as they reach the top of the stairs. "There's no way that I'm letting you be alone on Christmas! Besides… I-I think Tadashi would like to know that we're spending Christmas together this year. Don't you?"
"Yeah," Fred agrees, trying to fight down the lump that had risen in his throat. "I-I think so too…"
Hiro nods in response, just standing there for a moment with his shoulders slumped and looking so small and incredibly lost that it was all Fred could do not to just pull him into a tight hug and tell him that everything was somehow going to be okay, as much as this holiday was going to hurt for both of them. But before he could give into the impulse, Hiro jerks upright, his eyes going wide as he cries out, "Oh my gosh! I just realized- If you're not at your house, how is Santa going to know where to bring your gifts?"
"It's not a problem, amigo," Fred hurries to reassures him. "We have a tree at home, and I'm sure that Santa will leave the presents there for me so I can open them whenever I get back home!"
"Well that royally sucks." Hiro frowns. "Maybe Santa will realize that you're staying with us and bring them here instead…"
"Oh, no, um, I think my dad's going to try to be home late Christmas night so it's okay for Santa to leave them at my house so I can open them with him when he gets home!" Fred quickly answers. Shit, he couldn't have Hiro wondering why his presents weren't under the tree on Christmas morning!
"That works, I guess," Hiro agrees with a slow nod, seeming pacified by that answer. "Well, you can at least you can still celebrate Christmas morning with us!"
"Exactly!" Fred agrees before asking, "So, were you in the middle of anything when I showed up? I know that I kind of came here totally unannounced…"
"I was actually just decorating the cookies for Santa!" Hiro answers with a grin. "Do you want to help me?"
"Heck yeah, I'd love to, little dude!" Fred grins back at him.
"Awesome! Let's go, then!" Hiro turns to head back down the stairs and, content that the plan was progressing as smoothly as it could for the moment, Fred follows after him, praying that somehow he'd actually manage to pull this all off.
The rest of the evening was spent in a rather peaceful manner-or as peaceful as it could get for Fred, who was silently starting to panic over just how many things could go wrong tonight. Still, Hiro seems blissfully unaware of his silent turmoil as they finish decorating the cookies and then spend the rest of the evening watching cheesy holiday movies with Aunt Cass once she's come up to join them after closing the cafe early for the holidays. It was around ten o'clock that Aunt Cass announces that it was bedtime, giving Fred a meaningful look as she reminds the two boys that Santa wouldn't come until everyone was safely tucked up in their beds.
"Right!" Hiro agrees, eagerly bouncing out of his chair. "C'mon, Fred! Let's go get ready for bed so Santa can come!"
"Right behind you!" Fred answers, nodding quickly to Aunt Cass before following Hiro up the stairs.
The two boys take turns in the bathroom changing into their pajamas and getting ready for bed. Fred went after Hiro, and when he exits the bathroom, he finds Hiro standing in the middle of the bedroom, shuffling his feet a bit awkwardly and holding a children's storybook in his hands.
"Um… Fred?" he says quietly. "I-I know it might be a bit weird, but Tadashi would always read this with me every Christmas Eve… D-Do you think that maybe you…?"
"Hiro, I would be honored," Fred reassures him, secretly relieved-since Hiro was asking, he wouldn't have to find some way to bring this up himself! He knew that Hiro had said that the story was an important part of the brothers' Santa tradition, and he was glad that Hiro felt comfortable enough with him to ask him to read it in Tadashi's stead.
The two boys take a few minutes to construct a very basic pillow fort (apparently this was a part of the Hamada bros' Christmas tradition as well), and then while Hiro was getting settled in Fred covertly gets his phone ready to secretly send the text to alert Gogo, who was currently waiting on the roof to make the tell-tale reindeer hoof sounds, when the time was right to start the next phase of Operation Santa Claus.
"You ready to start?" Fred asks once Hiro seemed comfortable, almost holding his breath as he prepares to open the book.
"Yeah. I think I am," Hiro answers, and for just a moment Fred thought he saw the tiniest hint of something that oddly enough looked like fear in his eyes. But a smile quickly replaces any sign of concern and Fred, deciding that he'd imagined it, turns to the first page and begins to read.
"'Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse…"
Just before he reached the line about "there arose such a clatter", Fred sent off the text to Gogo to let her know that it was time to start, so just as he started to read it the sound of what to the unknowing ear would certainly sound like reindeer hooves started coming from the roof above them.
"Whoa!" Hiro gasps, eyes going wide as he glances upwards. "N-No way!"
"It sounds like Santa's arrived!" Fred says with a grin, getting caught up in the moment and for just a moment almost forgetting that it was actually Gogo up there and not Santa's team.
"Y-Yeah, sounds like it!" Hiro agrees, his eyes shining as he grins back up at him.
"C'mon, let's finish the story-we've gotta follow Tadashi's rule and not disturb Santa while he's working, right?" Fred says, gesturing to the book.
"Definitely!" Hiro agrees, to Fred's surprise but not at all displeasure actually snuggling up against his side. Beaming, Fred wraps an arm around the boy's shoulders and pulling him close as he reads.
It had been exactly ten minutes since the arrival of "Santa" (plenty of time for Santa's helpers downstairs to have put out the presents and made themselves scarce) and it was all going beautifully as, after the last clopping of reindeer hooves on the rooftop faded away (this time in "takeoff"), Fred had finally agreed with Hiro that it was safe for them to head downstairs to take a look at the tree. But just as they reached the bedroom door, Fred heard the sound of something slipping down the rooftop, followed by some rather choice-sounding oaths that were most definitely not being made by jolly old Saint Nick, and finally a loud cry and a crunching sound.
"What the hell?" Hiro cries, turning back around. "What was that?"
"I-I'm sure it was nothing!" Fred quickly tries to turn him back towards the stairs. "Come on, let's go downstairs to see-"
But Hiro was too fast for him, and he slips under his arms, racing over to the door that led onto the outdoor patio garden, gaping as he looks up to see-
"G-Gogo? What are you doing hanging from my roof?" Hiro stammers as he stares up at Gogo, who was hanging from the gutter bordering the roof with both hands.
"Uh, hey, Hiro," Gogo says with a slightly guilty smile. "I was just-y'know, out for an evening patrol and thought I'd stop by to say hi?"
"But you're not wearing your superhero suit," Hiro says suspiciously, and Fred could clearly see the gears turning in the teen's head.
"Hiro, I'm sure that there's a perfectly good explanation for this-" Fred quickly tries to divert his attention, but before he could say anything more Hiro turns and races back into the house and down the stairs.
"Hiro, no, wait!" Fred cries, chasing after him.
"It's fine, I'll just figure out how to get down myself, thanks!" he hears Gogo calling after him, but he couldn't turn around to help her. He had to head Hiro off. If the others hadn't actually left yet-!
By the time he reaches the bottom of the stairs, he realizes with a sinking heart that the damage had already been done. Honey Lemon and Wasabi were standing half in and half out of the door, seeming frozen as Hiro stares them down, his mouth hanging open in silent shock.
"I-I can't believe this…" Hiro was the one to finally break the silence, shaking his head and, to Fred's horror, tears seeming to be welling up in his eyes. "A-All of you… Y-You did this?"
"Hiro, I'm so sorry," Fred whispers, slowly making his way towards Hiro and vaguely aware of Gogo arriving at the bottom of the stairs, apparently having managed to safely get the rest of the way down from the roof. "W-We just wanted to try to make sure that this Christmas was as close to the ones that you had with Tadashi as possible… We didn't mean for you to find out that Santa doesn't really exist this way…"
"Wait… What?" Hiro turns to him, eyes flashing with confusion. "What do you mean by tha- Oh. Oh! Oh my gosh… Fred, d-did you think that I actually still believe in Santa?"
"...Wait, you mean that you don't?" Fred cries, feeling like his entire world had been turned on its head for the second time in far too short a period of time.
"Of course not!" Hiro shakes his head. "I figured out that Santa isn't real and that it was Tadashi behind all of this stuff when I was, like, eight! But Tadashi always went all out trying to make Santa real for me every year, so I just went along with it because it made him happy and it made the holidays more fun for both of us. I was keeping it up this year because it helped me feel close to him… I-I had no idea that you would take me seriously and try to do all of this yourselves! You seriously almost made me think that there were reindeer on the roof for a minute there because I didn't know what else it could be without that robot Tadashi made to make the hoofbeat sounds on the roof in action!"
"...So you mean I risked my life going up on the roof to make stupid reindeer sounds for nothing?!" Gogo cries, glaring at Fred.
"Not for nothing!" Hiro quickly answers before Fred can try to come up with a response to that. "Definitely not for nothing. I-I was so afraid that this Christmas… That it was going to be so hard, not having Tadashi here with me to make everything as special and magical as it always was and to share everything with me… But now I can see that I was totally wrong about that. I have the best family of friends ever who are willing to literally risk their necks to make sure that I still had an amazing Christmas. And you have no idea how much that means to me…"
"Awww, Hiro!" Honey Lemon beams and goes over to pull him into a big bear hug, and somehow before he could even realize what was happening Fred found himself in the middle of a group hug centered around Hiro.
"I don't know what I'd do without you guys…" Hiro murmurs with a somewhat wet sounding laugh.
"Well you don't have to imagine that because you're never going to have to be without us," Fred reassures him, hugging him closer.
"Yeah, I know. And that's pretty much the best Christmas present that I could ask for this year…" Hiro agrees, smiling up at him through the tears that were starting to leak out. Fred was starting to feel a little teary eyed himself, but if there was anything that this whole experience had taught him it was that, no matter how hard, with all of them together there wasn't anything that they couldn't face.
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The others had already headed home to get some much needed shut-eye before celebrating the holiday with their own families in the morning and both Fred and Hiro were half-dozing sitting in front of the fireplace, silently enjoying the comfort of being in each others' presence on their first Christmas Eve without Tadashi, when they were both startled awake by the sound of someone knocking on the front door.
"What the heck?" Fred mutters, turning towards the source of the noise. "Who on Earth would be knocking this late at night? Hiro, you and Aunt Cass didn't invite anyone else over, did you?"
"No, definitely not," Hiro answers with a concerned frown. "I guess maybe one of the neighbors saw Gogo up on the roof and came to investigate? Or… Oh jeez, hopefully they didn't call the police thinking she was trying to break in or something…"
"Tell you what, you stay here and let me go answer it," Fred says. "If it is the police I'll explain what happened, and if we need Aunt Cass to corroborate the story you can run and get her."
"Okay." Hiro nods, seeming glad that he wouldn't have to get up from his warm patch of floor. "Just shout if you need me, okay?"
"Okay," Fred agrees, and, not wanting to keep whoever was at the door waiting, finally goes to answer it.
"Hello, can I help yo-" Fred starts to say as he cracks the door open, only for his voice to trail off completely as his eyes take in the man standing on the front stoop. No. No way. There was not possible way that this was real!
"Merry Christmas, Fred," Tadashi says softly, and his voice was so sincere, his eyes so gentle and warm that it didn't seem possible that he wasn't real.
Still, Fred thinks, mentally shaking himself, the team had been burned before by villains trying to make fake copies of Tadashi to get to them. How was he supposed to believe that this was the real Tadashi? And, even it wasn't a copy, what if it was some Christmastime phantom, like in the Charles Dicken's story? The spirits had showed up for Scrooge on Christmas Eve, right? Could the same thing be happening here?
"Y-You… A-Are you a ghost?" Fred finally manages to get out-it was the first coherent sentence that would come out of his mouth.
"Hardly," Tadashi chuckles warmly, his eyes sparkling with amusement.
"Are you sure?" Fred asks-he knew that it was a stupid question, but it's the only thing he could think of to say.
"Pretty sure," Tadashi answers with a lopsided grin. "But if you'd like to test that theory…"
And before Fred could even realize what was happening, Tadashi was wrapping his arms around his waist and pulling him into an open mouthed kiss, and all of Fred's worries were instantly swept away as he melts into it. With as closely as he and Tadashi had kept their secret, there was no way that anyone could have made a copy that knew about the two of them being in love. And this kiss was kriffing real as rain-no fake or ghost could kiss as good as the real Tadashi.
"Fred? Fred, what's going on?" Fred could distantly hear Hiro's worried voice calling from behind him, but he was way too far gone to be able to form a coherent answer. He would have gone on kissing Tadashi all night if he'd been able to have his way, but unfortunately for him Tadashi had other plans, and he gently pulls away from Fred, despite Fred's soft whimper of protest.
"Don't worry," Tadashi gently whispers in his ear. "We'll have plenty of time to finish this later."
"'Kay," Fred breathes-as long as he had the promise of being able to pick this kiss back up, he could be unselfish for a bit.
Knowing that Hiro couldn't see Tadashi and was probably very concerned about what was taking him so long, Fred pushes the door further open to allow Tadashi inside.
"D-Dashi?" Hiro whispers, eyes going wide as he takes in the sight of his older brother for the first time. "W-What- H-How- Y-You're dead! You can't be here!"
"Well then it's a good thing I'm not dead," Tadashi answers with a grin, walking over to Hiro and scooping him up into a tight hug.
"B-But how are you here? I-It's not possible…" Hiro seemed to be trying to resist, but he was quickly losing the battle of melting into his elder sibling's embrace.
"Let's just say that Santa's been spending the last couple months fixing me up in his workshop and he's been working really hard to get me home in time for Christmas," Tadashi answers, gently ruffling Hiro's hair. "You didn't think that Santa would let you down this year, did you? Hasn't he always gotten you everything that you asked for?"
"...That is easily the most bs thing you have ever said to me…" Hiro says, shaking his head and burying his face into Tadashi's chest, visibly trembling as he pulls his brother closer.
"Hey, swear jar!" Tadashi lightly scolds his younger brother without any real anger, arms tightening around him. "I know it's Christmas Eve, but it's not too late for Santa to bring you coal, y'know?"
"Shut up about Santa already!" Hiro's hands curl even tighter into the coat that Tadashi was wearing. "H-How do I know that it's really you? H-How do I know that you're not another fake?"
"Oh, otouto…" One of Tadashi's hands starts automatically stroking the younger boy's hair, the other rubbing gentle circles on his back. "I heard about those… I'm so, so sorry that someone tried to use something that looked like me to hurt you… But I swear, it really is me…"
"Prove it!" Hiro cries, starting to pull away, tears rolling down his cheeks and suspicion flashing in his eyes. "T-Tell me how you're actually here!"
"I-I want to, Hiro," Tadashi answers, a guilty look crossing his face. "But the person who patched me up pretty much swore me to secrecy because no one's really supposed to know that he's still active as a hero… It's for his safety as well as ours. I-Is there anything else that I can do to prove it to you?
A retired hero? Fred wonders. What retired hero would have been in town during the time of the Expo fire and could have somehow saved Tadashi?
And then he remembers what his dad had said about the guy who had been recovering in his lab and who he'd been trying to get home in time for Christmas. No way. No freaking way. Had his dad actually-?
"Hiro," Fred says softly. "I-I think I may know who it was who saved Tadashi…"
"You do?" Hiro stares up at him in disbelief before demanding, "If you know who it was, then tell me!"
"I-I can't do that, Hiro," Fred sighs, shaking his head. "I'm sorry… I-I think maybe it's best to just go with saying that it was Santa after all."
"But how do we know for sure that this is really Tadashi?" Hiro growls, growing more agitated by the minute and tears starting to fill his eyes. And who could blame him? He'd had his heart broken so many times that the idea of losing another Tadashi was probably about to send him right over the edge.
"Hiro… He, um…. He kind of kissed me when I answered the door?" Fred answers quietly, his cheeks burning. "And no one but you and me know about the fact that Tadashi and I were-I mean are dating? None of those copies have ever known about that, right?"
"T-That is true…" Hiro agrees slowly, looking back up at Tadashi with some degree of hope returning to his eyes. "I-I don't think that anyone else has figured that out before…"
"Wait, told him we were dating?" Tadashi squawks, looking over at Fred in disbelief.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to out you but I thought you were dead!" Fred cries. "Do you know what it was like having to act like I wasn't dying inside from losing the love of my life?!"
"...F-Fred…" Tadashi gasps softly, his eyes going wide. "You… I-I'm the love of your life?"
"Of course you are," Fred answers, shaking his head and trying to hold back tears of his own. "You're the only one I've ever wanted to spend the rest of my life with!"
"Oh my gosh…" Tadashi breathes before learning over towards Fred, and without even thinking about the consequences Fred starts to lean in too, his eyes sliding shut-
"Okay, ew, gross, no, no kissing over me!" Hiro cries, startling the two of them apart. "I get it, obviously Fred trusts you! And… That's pretty good evidence since Tadashi actually knows that the two of you were dating… But… I still need just a bit more proof to make sure… I've seen some really, really convincing fakes before, okay?"
"What do I need to do or say for you to trust me, otouto?" Tadashi asks softly. "I'll do anything for you to be able to accept that I'm actually here with you. I don't want to see you having to live with the pain of losing me any longer…"
Hiro's face scrunches up with concentration and then finally he answers, "...Tell me something that only you and I would know. Something that no one-not any of our friends, not Fred, not Aunt Cass, not even something that could have been recorded by Baymax-would have been able to find out."
A look of relief crosses Tadashi's face. "That, I can do," he says gently before leaning in and whispering something in Hiro's ear so softly that even Fred, as close as he was sitting to them, couldn't hear it.
When Tadashi pulls away, Hiro was silent for a full minute, seeming to be processing whatever Tadashi had just said. And then a grin crosses his face and he wraps his arms tightly around Tadashi and burying his face into his chest. "I-It really is you, Dashi…"
"It is, Hiro." A relieved grin crosses Tadashi's face as he pulls Hiro closer. "It really, truly is."
"Oh my gosh… Oh my gosh, Dashi, you're here," Hiro whispers, his voice cracking in a way that made Fred's heart ache for him. But he knew that Tadashi's hugs were the best cure for what Hiro was experiencing right now, and so he sits silently to let the brothers work everything out in the way that they needed to right now.
"I've missed you so, so much," he hears Hiro murmuring into Tadashi's chest as the two siblings hold each other. "I've missed you every single day that you've been gone…"
"I know," Tadashi answers, gently stroking Hiro's hair. "I've missed you so much too… I would have come back sooner but apparently I was in a coma for a good month or two, and I just barely finally got to the point where it was safe for me to travel home tonight…"
"Y-You were in a coma?" Hiro gasps, and Fred couldn't help but feel his own heart clench at that.
"Partially medically induced while I was healing," Tadashi answers quietly. "Apparently I got myself burned up pretty badly, I still don't know how 'Santa' got me patched up as well as he did…"
He hangs his head as he adds so softly that Fred could barely hear him, "I-I'm still so, so sorry for what happened… So sorry to both of you." He looks up at Fred, guilt written clearly across his face. "I-I don't blame either of you if you don't forgive me for what I did…"
"Sorry for what, Dashi?" Hiro asks. "You didn't do anything wrong!"
"I was stupid enough to run into that fire when there was no way that I could have actually saved anyone!" Tadashi answers, shaking his head. "And with everything I put all of you through thanks to me trying to be a hero…"
"Oh, Dashi, no!" Fred wraps his arms around Tadashi, pressing a quick but fervent kiss to his cheek. "Tadashi, you were only trying to help someone who was in danger! How could we blame you for being so selfless!"
"A lot of good being selfless did," Tadashi quietly mutters. "The guy I was trying to save returned the favor by trying to kill all of you!"
Okay, so apparently Fred's dad had filled Tadashi in on the events following the fire. Fred would have preferred to find a gentler way to break the news to him, but now that the secret was out they'd just have to work with what they had.
Fred was just trying to think of a good response to that when Hiro piped up, "Tadashi, please, don't blame yourself for that! I know it's not easy… Trust me, I spent the month after you d-di… Well, after the fire… Locking myself away because I blamed myself for not holding you back and keeping you from running into the Expo hall in the first place… But I just made myself even more miserable and hurt all of our friends...Blaming yourself doesn't help, and I don't want to lose you again now that I have you back because you're mad at yourself for something that already happened and you can't change!"
"Yeah, what he said!" Fred quickly agrees when he sees Tadashi turning a questioning gaze to him. "I-I can't say it as nicely as Hiro did, but I fully and completely agree with him! I was so scared that we'd lost Hiro too after we thought that we'd lost you… I-I don't want to see you spending all your time feeling guilty about what happened when none of us are upset with you. We just want to have you back in our lives and know that you're okay and happy, and that's the only thing that we would ever want from you."
"...When did you guys get so smart?" Tadashi murmurs as he wraps his arms around the both of them, his shoulders sinking in defeat, and Fred nuzzles up against him, extremely glad to find that Tadashi was apparently listening to them.
"We learned from the best," Hiro laughs, also nuzzling into Tadashi.
"Aww!" Tadashi beams as he pecks Hiro on the top of his head and Fred on the cheek. "I seriously don't know what I did to deserve both of you…"
Fred was about to go into exactly what Tadashi had done to deserve them when he hears the sound of Aunt Cass' bedroom door opening and a voice calling, "Boys, I know that it's technically Christmas morning but could you please wait a few hours before being so loud and waking me up?"
Fred didn't even have time to think of a way to prepare her before she came shuffling into the living room in a red silk robe and fluffy calico cat slippers. For a moment her eyes, half closed with sleep, didn't seem to fully be processing what she was seeing. But then they fly open and a half-strangled cry comes out of her mouth as her hands clamp over her mouth.
"Aunt Cass!" Tadashi stands to greet her, and the other two men quickly move to give him room to move.
"Aunt Cass, it's okay," Tadashi says gently when she fails to respond, just staring at him as if she was looking at a ghost-which, it was quite possible was exactly what she thought she was seeing. "It's really me, I promise. Santa brought me home just in time for Christmas."
He wraps his arms tightly around her, and Fred could hear the muffled sobs as she hugs him back.
"It's really him, Aunt Cass!" Hiro pipes up, obviously trying to help. "It's the real Tadashi!"
"My baby…Oh, sweetie," Aunt Cass finally whispers, reaching a visibly shaking hand up to stroke Tadashi's cheek. "Oh, my angel came home…"
"Yeah, I'm home, Aunt Cass," Tadashi reassures her, lightly kissing the top of her head as he hugs her closer. "I'm sorry it took me so long to get back, but I'm home now, and I'm not planning to leave any time soon."
Fred sees Hiro going over to join the rest of his family and, feeling a bit like an intruder on this family moment, he slips into the kitchen, deciding that it would be best to give them some privacy. He was far too charged up and antsy to just stand idly by, so he heads over to the kitchen cabinets and starts working on making a pot of hot cocoa, figuring that everyone could probably use something warm and sugary after this unexpected (not at all unwanted, but definitely shocking) turn of events.
He had just removed the pot of finished cocoa from the burner on the stove and was starting to search for mugs to pour it into when he feels a pair of arms wrapping around his waist from behind and a chin coming to rest on his shoulder.
"Hey." Tadashi's warm breath tickles his ear. "What are you doing in here? A-Are you not happy to see me?" His tone was playful, but Fred could hear the very real fear it in.
"Oh, Dashi…" Fred turns so that he could wrap his arms around him in a proper hug. "I am so, so happy to see you… Y-You have no idea how happy… I just didn't want to intrude on you and your family…"
"Freddy…" A relieved smile crosses Tadashi's face as he takes Fred by the back of the neck. "That was very sweet of you, but you do know that you're a part of this family, right?"
"I-" Before Fred could answer that, Tadashi had pulled him into a deep, knee-melting kiss that silenced any concerns or objections he might have had.
"C'mon," Tadashi whispers huskily in his ear when he finally pulls away, leaving Fred light headed and feeling like the room was spinning. "Let's go make this official."
"W-What?" Fred stammers faintly, but before he could press for more details, Tadashi was leading him back out into the living room, his arm wrapped firmly around his waist for support.
"Aunt Cass?" he hears Tadashi saying. "There's something that Fred and I wanted to tell you before… Well, before the fire. And I'm sorry we never got to tell you before, but I want you to know the truth, because Fred deserves to know he's as much a part of this family as me and Hiro."
Oh gosh. Fred felt the blood rushing in his ears, his heart thumping loudly in his chest. He and Tadashi had agreed that they were going to tell Aunt Cass about their relationship after the Expo, and he had absolutely no problem with anyone knowing that he was gay. But Tadashi hadn't been sure how accepting Aunt Cass would be, and that had been part of the reason they'd waited for so long. Was Tadashi really willing to get kicked out right after getting home, just so he could publically be with him?
"We're dating, Aunt Cass."
Okay, apparently he was. And as Fred presses up against his boyfriend's side, waiting to hear Aunt Cass' reaction, he was pretty sure that he'd never been more in love with him
"You two… Are dating?" Aunt Cass finally repeats slowly.
"Yes," Tadashi answers, placing a quick but still tender kiss on Fred's cheek and squeezing his hands. "And I love him very, very much."
Fred nods in agreement, for once in his life unable to speak, waiting to hear how Aunt Cass was going to take all of this. Out of the corner of his eye he could see Hiro standing with his hands clenched, clearly ready to step in if things got nasty, and Fred was incredibly grateful to know that Hiro, at least, accepted him as part of their family.
Aunt Cass was silent for a moment more, and then a grin spreads across her face as she stands up from the couch.
"Oh, I knew it! I knew there was something going on between you two!" she cries, coming over and wrapping her arms around both of them. "I'm so happy that you finally told me! And Fred, I hope that you know that of course you're a part of this family! Even if you and Tadashi weren't dating, and especially with everything that you've done for Hiro, I absolutely consider you one of my own."
"T-Thank you…" Fred manages to get out, hugging her tightly and fighting back tears. He didn't know what he'd done to deserve such a wonderful family taking him in like this, but he was more grateful than he could express to them for loving him so much.
"Okay, okay, enough mushiness!" Hiro says after giving them what he clearly thought was ample time to have processed their emotions. "I don't think that any of us are going back to sleep at this point, so let's go ahead and celebrate Christmas!"
"Usually I'd say that you should at least try to get some more sleep in, but sadly I think you're right about none of us falling asleep any time soon," Tadashi admits with a laugh as Aunt Cass finally lets him and Fred go.
"I'll go pour the cocoa I made and then Hiro can unwrap his presents," Fred chuckles.
"Oh no, you're not going anywhere, mister!" Aunt Cass says firmly. "I'll pour the cocoa, I'm sure you and Tadashi have a lot of lost time to make up for!"
"Well, I guess she approves of us dating," Tadashi says as she heads into the kitchen, grinning over at Fred.
"I guess so," Fred agrees, beaming and gently leaning against Tadashi's side, only to sit right back up again as he sees Hiro going to sit by the pile of presents under the tree.
"Oh my gosh! Dashi, I'm so sorry, I just realized that none of us got you any presents for Christmas… I-If we'd known that you would be here…"
"Presents? That is seriously the last thing on my list of priorities right now," Tadashi chuckles warmly before gently tilting Fred's chin up so that he was within kissing distance, his breath lightly ghosting across Fred's lips. "Besides. I have Aunt Cass and Hiro, and I have you. What more could I ever want than that? Just being back with all of you is the best Christmas present that I could ever ask for."
"Yeah," Fred agrees, a grin crossing his face as Tadashi pulls him in for another kiss. "Having you back is everything I could have asked for this year too."