The day went by in a blur for Hiro, he'd passed the tests in flying colours and paid no attention to the classes, lunch flew by faster than he expected as well. And with nothing on in his last few classes, Hiro spent the rest of the school day slaving away on his microbots.

Heaving a sigh Hiro looked up at the sky, watching the dark clouds rolling in. He remembered the small television attached onto the train's roof. Although he remembered the pictures flashing onto the screen, Hiro couldn't quite remember if the lady had said it would be a light shower or...something else. He prayed to the heavens it would only be light and short.

But it seemed that the weather was against him once again as the heavy downpour started. The rain pattered against the large, circular window of his office. Right now, the college student was relieved that it was nothing more than just heavy rain for a couple hours; he wouldn't mind staying at the institute to continue working on inventions. But then the thunder and lightning started to come around and suddenly Hiro didn't want to stay at the institute.

Flicking on the light, for he had only been working with the desk lamp up until the rain, it at least helped with the flashing of the lightning. Ever since he was young, Hiro always had trouble coping with thunderstorms and Aunt Cass, who had been his caretaker since the year he turned three, was always there to comfort him. And even though he was a seventeen year old in college, the noise and flashing lights still terrified him. This was probably the primary reason he hated this time of the year.


Tadashi and his group of friends were seated around a stack of cards, playing a card game that Fred kept stowed away in his bag. A game where Tadashi couldn't help but laugh at and he could laugh freely due to the lack of students in the lab, it also was a good way to kill time and wait out the rain.

"I didn't know Cards against Humanity was going to be this funny," Honey Lemon, who had just been introduced to the game, wiped at her eyes.

"Well it has a good rating for a reason," Gogo let out a chuckle before looking at the tanned male, "what are you staring at Wasabi?"

The addressed male turned towards the speedaholic and frowned, "Didn't everyone in the offices already leave?" as he said this; he jerked his thumb down the hall of offices. While there was the large open space, there was also the hallway with offices down it. They were for privacy purposes.

Curious, Tadashi stood up from his spot and joined Wasabi at the hallway door, and the light in the office at the end of the hall had been turned on.

"Who works at the end of the hall, Fred?" Tadashi looked towards the blonde for an answer but only received a shrug.

"I don't know, man. That person is always there before anyone else and leaves after everyone else," he didn't look up from shuffling through his cards.

"Why don't we invite them? More is always fun, right?" Honey, the only other blonde of the group, liked the thought of her idea and stood to ask, But Wasabi was already on his way down the hall.

It didn't take long for him to reach the door and knock lightly, trying to be as polite as possible. Clearing his throat he waited patiently for the occupant to open the door. Shuffling and movement sounded from the other side of the door and Wasabi could swear he heard sniffling before it opened, and the short teen from behind the café stood in front of him.

Smiling rather awkwardly, Wasabi opened his mouth to speak, "So, uh, we noticed your light on and wanted to ask if you were interested in...Playing a card game with us? It's ok if you don't want to, just wanted to ask, if you want."

The shorter male only stared, a glint of amusement passing through his eyes before it disappeared almost instantly. Looking down, Wasabi could see the male was hesitant; feet shifting repeatedly and shoulders tensed.

But just as Wasabi was going to apologise for interrupting and walk away, the other had looked back up and smiled crookedly.

"That would be nice."


The group waited and watched Fred gather the cards, getting ready to start a new game. Honey Lemon won the previous game, to the group's surprise.

The tapping of two pairs of shoes grew near and the group of four looked up from the game, curious to whom the mystery student was. And Tadashi could feel his eyes widening in surprise.

In front of him stood Hiro standing just off the left of Wasabi, a shocked expression appearing on his features as their eyes met. Tadashi had no idea Hiro had been a student working in the lab; he'd never seen him enter or leave even if the older had been staying late to finish an upgrade on his invention.

"Hiro? You work in the lab?" all eyes were now on Tadashi, except for Honey Lemon's whose eyes were constantly watching the shorter.

"Yeah..." Hiro looked down to fiddle with his fingers, he didn't notice a tall blonde walking over until he felt a hand on his back.

"So, Hiro is it? Would you like to play?" Hiro almost gawked at her height and looked at the stack of cards, then at the group of friends.

"Don't be shy!" she had bent down now, her head almost touching his and he jumped back in surprise, " I'd be intruding," he had said and all she did was coo.

"That's alright!"

This went on for a full three minutes, Honey Lemon insisting that he play and Hiro making up excuses. Finally, they settled on the idea of Hiro watching as they played. Rather forcefully, the blonde girl had sat him down next to Tadashi. After a few rounds Hiro couldn't hold back the chuckles and giggles and soon found himself picking out cards for the older male. When he found one especially funny, he'd laugh and excitedly pull it from Tadashi's hand then show him. Unknown to the younger male, Tadashi found his childlike ways an endearing charm.


Three games later and the storm was still going on strong, and fortunately for Hiro the game had been distracting him the whole time. But right now Hiro was gripping Tadashi's arm tightly as the rest of the gang were finding something to eat on the campus, and thankfully the cafeteria ladies decided to keep the cafeteria open.

Tadashi was watching the television for updates on the weather and sighed as the ad break started.

"Looks like we'll be staying the night at the institute," he frowned then looked down at the clinging male, "comfortable squeezing my arm off?"

Hiro look puzzled before he looked down and instantly detached himself from the arm, "Sorry, forced habit," he moved to stand up but the older had pulled him down.

"Hiro...you look like you're troubled," staring hard at Hiro he put the younger on his lap, in which he instantly tried to twist out of his grip. Hiro had been visibly flinching the past thirty minutes during the thunder storm.

"I'm fine," he stubbornly answered and tried to pry the larger hands off from around him.

"Hiro,"

"I'm ok, really,"

"Don't avoid this,"

This time Tadashi didn't earn a stubborn reply, Hiro was clinging to him like a lifeline. And outside the storm was as strong as ever. Was Hiro...?

"Are you afraid of thunder?" Tadashi had asked slowly and he could still see Hiro flinching at any sound of thunder or a flash of lighting. Hiro didn't have to answer for Tadashi to suddenly start rubbing his back; Hiro had turned around in his act to seek comfort.

"Block it out Hiro, close your eyes. Happy thoughts," Tadashi did his best to distract Hiro; he didn't notice Gogo watching the two.

After more soft words of comfort and a little bit of rocking the smaller male, Hiro fell asleep leaning against Tadashi's shoulder.

Sighing inwardly and settling Hiro down on Fred's couch, Tadashi almost yelped a vulgarity once Gogo decided to make her presence known with a cough.

"You two would make a pretty cute couple," Gogo grinned and snapped a bubble between her teeth.

"Stop with that already, the kid needed the comforting," and although Tadashi could feel his cheeks growing hot, he still denied any form of affection towards the male. With an unconvinced hum, Gogo exited the lab to join the others in the cafeteria.


With a groan Hiro sat up, the crick in his neck signalling he slept on a hard surface. He rubbed at his eyes, even though the action irritated them, and yawned. Once he let his eyes adjust to the light, he was surprised to be greeted by the familiar walls of the lab, and sleeping peacefully beside him was none other than Tadashi.

Now that he wasn't as groggy, Hiro could recall what had happened the night before, how he clung so closely to the older male.

The mere thought was too embarrassing.

Another groan and Tadashi stirred, but still remained dead to the world. Though most would take the opportunity of spending the night to get to their classes early, the thought of ditching school for a day appealed to Hiro the most. With that in mind Hiro hurriedly left the lab, not noticing the absence of a phone in his pocket.

Before leaving the school grounds, Hiro retrieved his bag from his locker and bought a can of black coffee from one of the many vending machines on the campus. Now all he had to do was leave through the student entry and exit, sounded easy enough. Except for the fact a famous professor wanted to chat with him before he left.

"Hiro, ah I was just looking for you,"

Visibly jumping, Hiro swivelled his head to see who wanted to stop him. His body relaxed.

"Professor Callaghan," he smiled nervously, "I was just leaving, but I can talk for a little."

"Skipping school?" the professor chuckled heartily, a smile evident on his lips. Hiro rarely felt uncomfortable talking with the man, but being caught planning to leave school on a school day was a whole new scenario to the college student.

"Yeah, uh, I haven't felt well since I woke up and I was thinking a day of rest would do me well," at this excuse the, much older, man frowned.

"Now I can't have sick students, can I? Yes, that's it, go on home to rest. I'll make sure to mark you absent in any of your classes." Hiro let out a tired smile and nodded, he'd always seen the professor as a fatherly figure to all of his students.

"I'll visit you in your office tomorrow, I promise," Hiro assured him before hurrying out the buildings door and gates. Lying wasn't usually something you'd catch Hiro committing and it was very uncharacteristic of him to do it, but he wasn't a perfect being and everyone lies, right?

Lowering his head as he scanned his transport card, Hiro boarded the train.


A/N: Sorry for the delay! My laptop died while I was writing and I had only saved half of what I'd written. I apologise deeply for any grammatical or spelling errors as well.

I put in more Hidashi in this and I assure you there will be more in chapters to come. I forgot to mention that this story is basically going to be the journey someone would usually take while falling in love, so yeah haha it's gonna be a little slow moving.

I'll bump the rating down a bit since I don't plan on anyone to use swears or have anything explicit soon.

Thank you for the reviews! They got me typing this chapter up as quick as I could!

Leave a review, constructive criticism is accepted.

'Till next update
-Pokann