An AU where Aunt Cass wasn't in the picture and the boys were required to go to an orphanage. This takes place before the movie, and it is indeed a short one-shot. I'm simply testing the waters of this fandom at the moment, so if my characterization is failing then please let me know. (I think I got the angsty-teen-thing down rather well, though.)
In San Fransokyo, there were two orphanages. They both were mostly kept running by the taxes and funds of the city, sometimes also gaining money through charity of the upper class or the occasional fund raiser. Hiro Hamada was one of the kids in the orphanage, along with Tadashi and a handful of other kids. They were in the smaller of the two orphanages, only having about fifteen people there instead of the thirty six that the other orphanage had to deal with. The ages varied from seven to eighteen – sometimes younger kids would come, but they were usually adopted quite quickly because a couple that is unable to birth their own children would love to get the youngest kids that they could.
The atmosphere of the orphanage wasn't nearly as bad as many people would imagine – people tried to have fun and remain happy for the most part. There was, however, a thin skin of the faux joy. People could nearly sense how foe the contentment of the children were when they entered, the fact buzzing in the back of their mind like unpaid taxes. The children, however, were used to it. They accepted that occasionally someone would drop a bowl and then burst out sobbing because of it (though, they were actually crying for an obvious underlying reason: they didn't have a cement family).
The kids and the people that worked there made a makeshift family amongst themselves. The workers were there to make sure they did their chores and went to school, acting like a group of several parents that didn't go by mom or dad. The kids helped out, the oldest kids also taking on some responsibilities and the youngest kids stirring up drama where they could. The workers would scold the troublemakers, but when it came right down to it, they cared for every one of the kids very deeply.
Many of the kids had problems. The problems ranged from extremely severe to… less severe. Some kids didn't know what to do about their emotions, so they ate or they didn't sleep or they cried or they didn't do anything. Because of this, a psychologist would see each of the kids once a week, and they were watched for shifts in behaviors or things like that.
In the Eastern San Fransokyo Orphanage (which had probably the least creative name possible), things were actually pretty good. Sure, it wasn't necessarily the best place in the world to live, but it didn't absolutely kill Hiro or Tadashi to live there.
Hiro and Tadashi were there because (shockingly) they were orphans. Their parents had died when Hiro was nine and Tadashi was twelve. Hiro refused to leave the warm side of his brother for several months, but after a while he showed interest in things that he had once enjoyed again. That was one of the most joyous times for the brothers since their parents had passed.
The two boys both loved science, and in a way that was all that they had left of their parents. The Hamada name wasn't a huge one in the way of technology, but it existed, and all the two boys needed to do was nurture the name and feed it until it grew to be one of the powers in the technological industry – this was a hopeless dream that the boys clung to desperately, using it as a coping skill for their own sake. They would steal the microwaves from the kitchen and mess with the electromagnetic waves, or look into how the old computers worked, hacking into things and speeding up the systems. Though on occasion the experiments when terribly, they did end up having a helluva lot faster computer in the end. Though the two caused trouble, the workers would slap their wrists with weary smiles every time.
Being orphans by no means meant that Hiro and Tadashi didn't go to school. Though the two flew through their classes, they were in school and trying to fit in – something that Tadashi did very well. The older had quickly found his group of friends in the robotics club. It was a group of very nice kids that he looked up to, and they were all very good students as well. They were good influences and helped Tadashi through the tough times in a healthy manner. For this, Tadashi was grateful.
Hiro, however, didn't use his smarts for good. Instead he began hacking into the computer systems so that he didn't have to attend his classes and skipped school constantly. He would go out onto the streets and be a part of dark alley deals, joining in gangs of bot fighting and quickly rising to the top of the ranks and gaining many enemies. He also got into fights, having to narrowly avoid death on many occasions. Though he tried to hide it from his elder brother, Tadashi had to pull the kid out of many fights that would have hurt Hiro.
Every time that Tadashi found Hiro, he would say the same speech. How every fight was a disgraceful debacle and that the child should know right from wrong well enough to not get mixed into this stuff. At first, Hiro would hang his head in shame and nod, stopping his fighting for a while before he got back into it. After a while, though, he would just roll his eyes and tell Tadashi that, albeit his help was appreciated, it wasn't necessary and that Hiro had all of it under his arm.
This continued until Tadashi got accepted into college at the young age of sixteen (having skipped a couple grades) and he had to leave the orphanage. He didn't tell Hiro right away, though. Hiro found out on his own, waiting for Tadashi to tell him himself. That never came, though. Hiro didn't tell Tadashi until the next time that he was caught bot fighting.
"How long do you think you can keep this up without getting hurt? If you get hurt, I'll get hurt too, Hiro, I care about you. You're all I have!" Tadashi ranted, sighing quietly to himself. He couldn't get through to Hiro the way that he used to be able to, though. The kid just brushed him off every time that he said something that used to make him hang his head in shame.
"Why don't you just leave me already? We both know you're going to," Hiro replied coldly. Tadashi froze and stared at his younger brother.
"What the hell are you talking about? I wouldn't just leave you, Hiro. You're my brother, you're—"
"Don't you dare say that I'm 'all you have' again. You have so much. You have friends and you have a future, Tadashi, and I want you to take that stupid scholarship and go to SFIT. I'm not doing this to spite you or anything, either, just leave me already and let me take care of myself so that I can just continue on with my life and you yours, right, Tadashi?" Hiro said. He didn't rant or raise his voice or anything like that. He said it as if he were stating the weather or talking about a movie that he saw but didn't particularly love.
"I'm still going to visit," Tadashi said quietly, not backing down. He could never back down when it came to his little brother. "I'm going to go though. And you have no idea how sick of this bot fighting stuff that you're doing. I've tolerated it relatively well, but this is my breaking point, Hiro. I'm not going to leave you to your life because you're still a kid and you're getting into dangerous things that are so far out of both of our leagues that it's unimaginable. I'm scared, Hiro. Not only for you, but of you. Do you even know how bad you've gotten? What if you genuinely don't know right from wrong anymore and you can't help but use your wonderful brain and potential to get yourself killed over something as stupid as bot fighting when you can go so above and beyond."
If one didn't listen to the words that were being spoken between the two but instead listened to the tone of their conversation at this point, it still would have seemed like they were going on about the weather, which was very contrary to how their conversation started out.
Hiro didn't know how to respond to Tadashi's words, and instead remained quiet, expecting Tadashi to leave. The elder didn't leave, though. He just sat next to his little brother and put an arm around him. They sat in silence like that, the dust that their argument kicked up settling around them, revealing two terrified souls that would stare at one another for a long while after.
When Tadashi finally found the words that he was grappling for, he cleared his dry throat and whispered to Hiro. "I'm seeing the school this weekend. You're really smart… maybe we could get you in on a grant too, next year. We could room together… it would be great, Hiro."
Hiro chuckled to himself and nodded a little. This was going to be an interesting run, for sure.
"We'll see."