I'v been obsessed with Big Hero 6 since I saw it last November and I have a million story ideas floating around my brain for potential fics. Although this wasn't really one of them I kind of enjoyed the idea of Tadashi walking out of the house to see his little brother smoking and how annoyed that would make him.
Sorry if everything's a little OOC, I don't think actual canon Hiro would be a smoker, but I just the idea was too funny to pass up and I needed a semi-good reason for him to actually start the habit.
Hope you enjoy!
Hiro was hiding. There was no nice way of putting it. He was hiding from his aunt, and he was especially hiding from Tadashi, and had been for the past few months, ever since he had discovered a new highly addictive habit.
It had started innocently enough, Hiro was hanging out with some other students from his classes at SFIT after class. They would all hang out on the quad, standing in a circle and talking about life and school. Hiro had taken a liking to this particular group of students and vice versa. The only unfortunate side to this situation was that all of them smoked while talking.
"Hey, Hiro! Want to bum a smoke?" One of his friends had asked as he approached the group. Hiro always hesitated after this question. He wasn't sure why, exactly, he had given off this impression that he was a smoker. Maybe it was the fact that he was now 17 and was surrounded by people his own age. He had never been able to be around his peers without finding himself face first in a locker. He didn't want to lose his newfound friends, especially seeing as all his other ones, including his older brother, had graduated.
"Uh, no man, I'm good for today. Thanks." Hiro always replied, as the group expanded their circle to let him in, puffing away on their cigarettes.
"Whatever you say bro," his friend would reply. "I don't know how you go so long without lighting one up. I can barely make it through a class and I'm practically shaking." The others laughed and Hiro joined in uncomfortably.
"Willpower, I suppose." Hiro replied.
Hiro knew all the ramifications of smoking. He knew that it caused lung cancer, and a whole host of other health issues. He knew that his Aunt would be furious with him and Tadashi would probably actually murder him, but technically his brother didn't go to his school or live with him anymore. And Aunt Cass was always busy with the cafe. There was no way that either of them could find out if he started smoking. And besides, he would only smoke while he was with his friends. He just didn't want them to think he was weird.
So, while on his way home from school one day, he popped into a gas station and bought himself a pack and a lighter, and then walked over to his garage. He figured that he was going to smoke anywhere, this was the ideal place. It constantly reeked of engine oil and spare machine parts, it would easily cover up the stench of cigarette smoke.
Hiro took out the pack and the lighter from his bag, and packed the unopened box, just like he had seen the guys at SFIT do. He reached in, pulled out a cigarette, and lit it, bringing it slowly up to his lips. Hesitantly, he inhaled the smoke from the stick, and immediately started coughing and gagging.
After his fit had subsided Hiro wondered whether it was really worth it to try again. He hadn't really expected to find it so irritating to his throat, the guys at school made it look so effortless and easy. It must just be something that comes with practice. Hiro tried again, this time it felt a little smoother before he started coughing and sputtering. But he was determined to belong and not feel weird, so he pressed on. Eventually he got to the point where he could smoke easily, inhaling the black fumes into his lungs, holding them for a minute, and then letting it out. He could understand why people did this, it really was relaxing.
After that he started partaking with the other after class. He finally felt himself relax, for once not feeling left out because he was the only one who wasn't smoking. But before Hiro knew it, he started craving cigarettes even when he wasn't with his group of friends. And unfortunately for him, he wasn't always able to go all the way out to his garage to get away from Aunt Cass.
So he started getting ballsier. He and Tadashi had discovered as kids that if they were to go around the side of the shop, there was a little alcove where Aunt Cass could never find them. Hiro felt a little guilty using his childhood play area as a place to hide his recreational drug use from Aunt Cass, but he was starting to become so wholly addicted to smoking there was really no other option.
The only thing the boy genius hadn't counted on was that Tadashi also remembered where the spot was. His older brother wasn't prone to a lot of visits, as he was mostly busy designing tech for the healthcare company that he worked for, but when he did stop by it was always unannounced and unexpected. Normally Hiro enjoyed Tadashi's visits, but he wasn't too keen on his big brother discovering his latest habit. Which was why it was so shocking for Hiro to hear, halfway through a cigarette, Tadashi shouting his name from not too far away.
"Hiro! There you are, what are you doing all the way out-" Tadashi stopped as he walking around the corner to the alcove, staring down at his little brother in shock. Hiro was holding a cigarette in his hand, face winced for the berating that he knew was coming.
"...What is that?" Tadashi asked, his once smiling face now cold and calculating. Hiro looked around wildly, trying desperately to think of some way out of this.
"What's what?" Hiro asked innocently. He winced internally, he should have been prepared for this eventuality. He tried to hide the cigarette behind his back.
"Are you smoking?!" Tadashi asked, face going from blank shock to anger.
"...No?" Hiro said innocently. Tadashi looked like he was about to have steam coming out of his ears.
"Are you fucking kidding me?" He roared, lunging for Hiro. He danced out of the way before Tadashi could get to him. "I spend literal years of my life designing a nursing android to try and improve universal health care and I catch my little brother out here smoking?!" Hiro had to jump out of Tadashi's way again. He wished he would stop lunging at him so he could just put the damn thing out and they could pretend like this didn't happen.
"Look man, it's not what you think. It's just that-" Hiro started to say before Tadashi finally tackled him to the ground. He grabbed Hiro's cigarette and snubbed it out on the ground.
"Oh no Hiro Hamada, there's no way you could possibly justify this to me. It's 2015, everyone who isn't a giant bonehead knows that smoking is really, really bad for you." Hiro struggled to try and get Tadashi off of him, although they were close to the same height now, it wasn't comfortable having a grown ass man practically sitting on top of him.
"Tadashi, calm down! It's not that big of a deal, I can quit anytime!" Hiro protested.
"Yeah sure, I believe that Hiro, which is why you're out hiding ten feet from the front door instead of going somewhere else to take care of your gross habit." Tadashi snarled. Suddenly he felt a hand rifling through his jacket pockets.
"Um, excuse you? What do you think you're doing?!" Hiro shouted. He shruggled harder to get Tadashi off of him, both boys breathing heavily from the exertion of fighting and yelling at each other.
"I know you have a pack on you somewhere. I'm taking it from you. Who knows what else I'll find? Got any bags of pot hidden in these pockets Hiro? How about some heroine?" Tadashi asked.
"You. are. a. lunatic. Of course I'm not smoking heroin, get off me!" Hiro yelled. He heard Tadashi make a triumphant noise from on top of him, holding up the small white square above his head.
"Boys? Just what do you think you're doing out here?!" They heard a voice yell. Both young men froze, recognizing the voice of their Aunt coming from right behind them.
Before Tadashi had the chance to say anything, Hiro shouted, "Tadashi was out here smoking!" Tadashi looked up at Aunt Cass who had taken notice of the pack of cigarettes in Tadashi's hands.
"You little weasel." Tadashi growled at his younger brother, "Aunt Cass I wasn't the one smoking. Hiro was!" Aunt Cass sighed loudly while rubbing her temples. She strolled over to where the two boys were, Tadashi still crushing Hiro under his bodyweight, snapped the pack of cigarettes in her pockets and yanked both brothers by up by the ear.
"Both of you are almost legal adults now, you should know better than to resort to violence to settle an argument!" She tugged a little harder on their ears and both boys winced. "Right now, I don't care which one of you was smoking and which one wasn't. If you're going to act like children, I'm going to treat you like children. Inside! Both of you get to work in the cafe for the rest of the afternoon!"
From then on, Hiro made it a point to smoke to never smoke near his house again.