Hi, and thank you so much for all the positive feedback on Protect Him. It was my first time writing as any of the BH6 characters, and the favourites and reviews I got for it made me really happy, so all I can say is thanks! I decided to try my hand at an ongoing series, and this crossover seemed to fit just right for a multi-chapter fic, so I decided to go for it. I can't really give an exact time frame for when this will be updated, I guess it will just be whenever I finish each chapter, but I hope I get as much positive feedback for this as I did with my last fic. It makes me really happy to know people enjoy my work!

I can only apologise, not an awful lot happens in this chapter, it's mainly just setting everything up for the story to begin. I'm not too proud of the writing in some parts of this, either, but I just wanted to get this bit out of the way and get to the fun stuff faster. Chapter two will progress the plot a little more, though, and I hope you still enjoy this!


Chapter One: Hiro 2.0

Hiro understood why he and his family had to move out. That didn't mean he was happy about it, though.
In fact, he couldn't be more peeved by the decision. Just because he went bot fighting a few times, he got into a few scuffles, and the other guys involved found the café, they suddenly had to evacuate- it would have been fine, if everyone stopped fussing so much! If his aunt and brother had listened to a word he had been saying instead of just yelling at him, he would have assured them that he had it all under control. He could build some more robots; bigger, stronger ones, meant for attacking humans rather than other bots. That would keep those goons away, for sure- if they ever decided to come back, that was!

But no, Aunt Cass just had to give up her thriving business in the café, and they had to move out into some dumb house. It really brought him down- this place had been strategically chosen, as it was closer to Tadashi's stupid nerd school, yet made it much more difficult for Hiro to sneak out and go bot fighting. Typical. It wasn't that bad, what he did- he just wanted something to do. Being this smart was so boring. Kids his age were supposed to still be in high school, grumbling about all the homework they were getting and anticipating any breaks they could get.

It had taken him nine years to get through elementary, middle and high school, and it had been a year since then. He could go to college, but what for? That was just learning about more boring stuff that he was already good at. That was why he did all these illegal things- it was the only fun thing that kept him busy now that he wasn't forced to go to school. He didn't have friends his age anymore; they'd all either taken an immediate dislike to him once he graduated because he was way smarter than them (they said something about him showing off about it, but he had figured out that it was just a cover-up for their jealousy), or tried and failed to keep in contact because of school and new friends and everything. Sure, all his brother's friends liked him, but they were, what? Three, four years older than him? It wasn't the same. Besides, as much as he and Tadashi had bonded over the years, they needed some time apart.

This was clear from their petty little argument in the back of Aunt Cass' car.
"You know, we didn't have to move," Hiro grumbled to no one in particular. His chocolate eyes followed a single raindrop out of the thousands lashing against the window, his head resting miserably against the glass. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Tadashi, his elder brother who was sitting on the other side of him, turn to glare at him.
"Um, yes we did. In case you don't remember, some thugs broke into our house, Hiro."
The younger brother groaned and sat up so that he could look the other boy square in the face. "When will you stop blaming this on me? Is it my fault those thugs decided of their own free will to track me down? I could've warned them off, piece of cake!"

"Hiro! You're fourteen! Those men are criminals, and you think you're clever for challenging them to fights?!"
"What else am I supposed to do?! I've already graduated high school, remember?"
"Oh, I don't know- go to college, maybe?!"
Crying out in frustration, Hiro roughly dragged his hands down each cheek, distorting his face by doing so. "I told you, Tadashi, college is useless to me! Everything they teach me there is stuff I already know!"
"You are unbelievable sometimes, you know that?!"

Aunt Cass stopped the car to wait for the traffic to move and scowled at her nephews over her shoulder. "Both of you, stop it! I don't care whose fault it was that we had to leave, we just did, and that's that."
"Isn't anyone even listening to me?! I could've-"
"Hiro, you're grounded."
"What?! That's not fair! Tadashi-"
Cass gave him a warning look, and he decided that it was best to shut up. He glowered moodily and resumed his position leaning against the car door, ignoring the obnoxious sigh from his older brother.

After that, there was no more speaking. Hiro was glad about that- he wasn't sure how much longer he could last with the two of them yelling at him.
It wasn't fair. Neither of them understood. Both of them were leading normal lives, just like everyone else's. Both of them had sailed their way through school at the same rate as others their age, and they had time to make friends, learn new things, decide what they wanted to do with their futures. He didn't. In fact, he had been catapulted through school like a blur, never going slow enough to make any friends or learn anything new or even consider where he was going to go next. He was only fourteen, and already, everyone seemed to be expecting him to make a decision and do everything right all the time, just because he was smart enough to get through school this quickly.

Some time passed- he wasn't sure how long, he was too lost in his thoughts- and the car started moving again. He stayed this way for most of the journey; all of that angry ranting in his brain had taken him onto some pretty sensitive subjects, and it left him feeling quite low. Stupid family. As much as he would probably regret saying it later, and realise that he was just being melodramatic, he was sometimes completely convinced that his family, or what was left of it, just didn't care about him anymore. They probably just wanted him to go to college because they cared, he knew that, but when they scolded him and constantly brought up how he would have to go to college someday, he wondered if they really knew how difficult it was to know what to do with your life when you were so young. Well, they wouldn't, would they?


The rain continued for hours. Even after they arrived at the new house, droplets still beat down relentlessly on the car's metal exterior. As such, everyone just grabbed as much as they could carry and bolted inside, although Aunt Cass had to scramble outside one more time in order to bring everything in, including Mochi, who wasn't too happy about being in a pet carrier. Tadashi stood on the sheltered doorstep to help her bring it all through the door, and by the time the two of them had turned their attention back to the other cases, the ones that belonged to Hiro had disappeared, along with the boy himself.

Tadashi spent the rest of the afternoon helping out his aunt with the unpacking downstairs. At least, with what they already had. The delivery men were going to bring the rest of the furniture in tomorrow, since their move was so short-notice and the company had been given no time to prepare. At least they had thought to pack sleeping bags, as well as lots of blankets and pillows, just for the first night. Still, those could wait. He could set his up just before going to sleep, actually, he would have enough time.

While he unpacked one of the boxes, he fished out something he never remembered seeing before. It was a little ragdoll, his large hand managing to cradle the body as its limbs and head submitted to the laws of gravity. Scarily, it looked just like his brother. Every feature was resembled exactly; his unkempt black hair, recreated with string; the cheeky grin stitched into the doll's face; even the same clothes that his little brother wore so often, replicated so well in minature versions that fit the small, stuffed body. What he noticed the most, though, were the black buttons, the only thing distancing this bundle of cotton and stuffing from Hiro. They were beady and soulless, nothing like the real boy's bright eyes, which shone so much that it was almost possible to see the constant influx of ideas swirling around in them.

Speaking of Hiro, he wondered why the kid wasn't helping unpack. He figured that his little brother must have still been frustrated and upset over their little argument in the car, or getting grounded. Possibly both. Probably both. Naturally, as a big brother, he felt guilty. He hadn't meant to make his brother this distressed, if at all. He supposed that he could just put it down to the strain of college becoming heavier with his reckless little brother to deal with, as well as an unexpected change of location. That didn't excuse him for being so harsh, though. When the unpacking was finished, he'd go apologise. For now, though, he wanted to know what this doll was all about.

"Hey, Aunt Cass. What's this?" Tadashi held up the doll by its arm, and it swayed lifelessly in his hand. He watched the woman look up curiously, then frown a little.
"I don't know... I've never seen that before." Tilting her head a little to study the object, she narrowed her eyes in focus. "Is that Hiro?"
"I think it is... If neither of us have ever seen it, Hiro must have made it." He chuckled a little bit. "I didn't know he could sew." Already, he had plenty of lighthearted jokes he could make about that to tease the younger boy. Quite often, one of them would start winding the other up, and it would keep going back and forth, both trying to push the other further and further, but it wasn't as cruel as it sounded. The whole time, the both of them would be laughing and joking, because they both knew that, unless it was about something serious, their little wars were always joking.
That didn't apply to earlier.

Once again, Tadashi's focus went back to Hiro himself. He hoped the little guy was okay- he would probably be over it by morning. Maybe not the grounding, but, well, Aunt Cass could be very lenient sometimes. There were plenty of times in his youth where he or his brother, sometimes both, would be punished, and she would completely forget- that, or she just chose not to carry out her promise of grounding them. Other times, she'd stay firm until the end. It was hard to predict with that woman. In any case, he wanted to say sorry to Hiro. Of course it wasn't his fault those men had broken into the café, but he just wanted him to understand that these sorts of things were the consequences that bot fighting had. Maybe, once he did, he would stop his reckless behaviour for good.

"Uh, Aunt Cass? Do you mind finishing the unpacking for me? I wanted to go apologise to Hiro for what happened in the car."
Cass looked up sympathetically, with a hint of pride. "Of course, sweetie. That's very mature of you. I can handle the rest of the unpacking. Oh- when you're done with that, could you take those outside to the trash?" She pointed at three boxes on the kitchen counter, brightly-coloured and flashy on the outside, but dull and greasy inside. They were the remnants of the Hamadas' dinner, and once would have contained burgers, fries and tiny bags of fruit. Aunt Cass had picked them up on the way to the house and they had eaten in the car to provide them with something in their stomachs until she went grocery shopping the next day.

"Sure. I'll handle it." Tadashi meekly accepted a hug from the shorter but older lady, then made his way upstairs. It felt strange, not seeing the usual family photos lining the walls, but he supposed they would appear some time in the next few days. It also came to his notice that the staircase here seemed much more extensive than the ones back home. Home... It would take a while for him to disassociate the café with his home. They lived here now, no matter how much he missed the Lucky Cat.

The further he walked, the darker it seemed to become, and it came to his notice that there weren't any lights on upstairs. Weird... He knew that Hiro wasn't afraid of the dark, but he always had some sort of light on if he was busy with a project or doodling or whatever else he did in his spare time. Granted, they didn't have any lamps or anything with them, that would all come with the rest of the furniture tomorrow, but there were still the built-in lights, which he figured Hiro would have turned on if he was doing something.

Soon enough, he reached the top step. From here, the top floor stretched out in a what he could only describe as an angular C-shape around him. There was six doors, and he knew what each of them was; one would be a room for him and Hiro to share (they may have been brothers, and they may have fought sometimes, but they still enjoyed each other's company), one would be Aunt Cass' room, one would be the bathroom, one would be a spare bedroom, one would be a study for Tadashi (Hiro, too, when he finally applied to college), and the other, he supposed, would be a spare room. The trouble was, he didn't know which door belonged to which room. As such, he had to switch on the corridor light and peep into each of them, and it took him about four tries until he located his and Hiro's room.

It was probably one of the biggest rooms in the house, second only to the living room downstairs. Sure, on first glance, he didn't like it as much as their attic bedroom back at the café, but he couldn't judge it that harshly yet, since there was practically nothing in it. Although it was pretty dark in here, too, he could just about make some things out; there were some open cases against the far wall, and some stuff was placed somewhat messily across the room, like some games consoles, handfuls of palm-sized robots that he assumed his brother had created, and there, lying in a big bundle of sheets and pillows on the left side of the room, was the kid himself.

Honestly, that boy had changed so much. It seemed like only yesterday that Hiro was a chubby little toddler, curled up under the sheets with his thumb in his mouth, noiseless and adorable. Now he was a skinny little adolescent, and he wasn't quite so cute. He lay on his back with his limbs spread everywhere; his left thigh and torso were entwined with the thin blanket that was supposed to sit on top of the quilt, and Tadashi wondered how his genius of a little brother could be so stupid as to choose that flimsy old thing over proper sheets. The knucklehead didn't even get changed, only having taken off his hoodie and trainers, and he was snoring loudly with his jaw hanging open, revealing his overbite and the gap between his two front teeth.

Grinning like the adoring big brother he was, Tadashi dropped the doll, scooped up the bundle of thick bedsheet resting a few inches away from the younger boy's fingers and draped it over him. Hiro's brow furrowed slightly- Tadashi figured he must have felt the gust of air when the sheet descended- but his face loosened again pretty soon, and his content was shown by the particularly loud snore that followed.
"Jeez, you sound like a broken foghorn when you sleep..."

"Says you, ya big buffoon," came the unexpected, sleepy reply, as a bare foot nudged his leg weakly in what was probably meant to be a kick.
"Oh... Hiro, you're, uh, awake..." Tadashi murmured, then sighed and didn't stop to beat around the bush. "Look, I'm sorry for what I said earlier. I guess I was just tired and stuff. That still didn't give me the right to snap at you, I know, but-"
"It's okay, you can make it up to me by buying me gummy bears tomorrow." Hiro grinned cheekily yet tiredly at the older boy, who just rolled his eyes. "Now, be quiet, would ya? I'm trying to take a nap."

"Oh. Sorry." Wasn't it a bit early to be going to bed? At least, by Hiro's standards, it should have been. The kid went to bed later than him sometimes. Oh, well- he probably just stayed up too late last night or something.
He felt something soft come into contact with his shoe as he moved to turn around. Upon looking down, he saw the doll again, smiling vacantly up at him, completely devoid of any sort of emotion. It gave him chills, but at the same time, the little guy was rather charming.
"Ah- I almost forgot. Sorry, Hiro, gotta keep you up for a little longer." He kicked the doll across the floor towards him, and the noise of cotton against wood made Hiro open his eyes curiously. "Found this in one of the boxes we packed. Gotta give it to you, it's not bad."

Barely able to bring himself to do it, Hiro begrudgingly sat up, his face twisting in confusion upon seeing the mini-him. He picked it up by the leg. "You think I made this?"
That made Tadashi frown. "You mean, you didn't?"
"No, Tadashi. I might be a robotics genius, but I'm no good at sewing." That quickly brought the smile back to his young face and he fell back on his makeshift bed, squirming back into the sleeping bag he had somehow ended up lying on top of.

"Weird..." The satirical bragging flew straight past him. How could that get in there if Hiro didn't make it? Well, someone had to have done it. Whatever, it wasn't that big a deal. "Do you like it?"
"Pfft. I guess. I mean, it's cool that it's of me, but I'm not into dolls."
"... Right," the eldest agreed suspiciously as he watched the hand holding the ragdoll slip under the covers with him.

Hiro shifted a little bit more, then yawned in a moderately exaggerated way. Tadashi got the message and whispered a soft 'oh', starting to make his way out. However, much like an affectionate parent, he stopped in the doorway and looked back at the teen. "Goodnight, Hiro. Don't steal too much of that bedding- I've gotta use some, too."
"Yeah, whatever, night to you, too. And turn that light off, or at least shut the door." Like a vampire shielding itself from the sunlight with his cape, the small figure lying amongst the bedding pulled the duvet over his head to shield himself.
The grumpy, drowsy side of Hiro always amused him, shown by his little chuckle. "Will do bud."


Once the door had clicked close and those soft footsteps had trudged back downstairs, Hiro fished into his sleeping bag, grasping the doll and pulling it back out in front of his face. Now he had the chance to look it over, he actually found it quite endearing, with its beady little eyes and it's brazen little smile. Though he had never been one for cuddly things, always having preferred plastic figurines and metal robots to soft and squishy stuffed animals when he was a child, he quite liked this little guy.
"G'night, little me," he murmured subconsciously to it. For a moment, he knitted his brows, puzzled as to why he was being so childish and talking to a doll, of all things. Did he really have so few friends? Well, I guess I do, he thought to himself as he rolled onto his side, with his new companion pressed to his cheek.