Hey! FoxFlyer here again!

So I'm terribly sorry about the day, I meant to upload last week but FanFiction was being stupid and I ran out of time. The slow drip that is this story continues on... slowly. Might have to change the parameters of it if they don't start bumping uglies, but in my defense I don't like PWP.

Enough of me, here's what you want. XD


The next morning, sunlight streamed through the window and illuminated a sweet scene. Tadashi was on his back, sprawled across the entirety of his bed. Hiro, still wrapped in his blanket, was curled up tightly beside him. The two probably would have slept the morning away if not for three hard raps on the wall below the landing. They both sat up at the same time and gave each other drowsy, confused looks as their aunt called a greeting.

"Boys are you up? The cafe is closed today so I made breakfast! Woo, go me!" Aunt Cass was a morning person. "I'll see you downstairs in a few minutes, ok?"

"Yes Aunt Cass," they chorused in unison.

Tadashi yawned and stretched. "Is there any particular reason you're in my bed, Hiro?"

"You don't remember?"

"Wouldn't have asked if I did." Tadashi stood and began to rummage through his dresser.

"I had a bad dream last night and you said I could come sleep with you."

Tadashi turned, one eyebrow raised. "I thought you'd outgrown that." He sounded surprised.

"Last night's dream really frightened me. I couldn't get back to sleep." Hiro realized he sounded defensive and quickly backtracked. "Plus we haven't slept together in a long time. Wasn't it kind of nice?"

Tadashi turned away again and seemed to be puzzling it over. Hiro watched him strip out of his pajama shirt and pull on a button-up. His brother always did have a different sense of style than the younger teen.

"It was nice," Tadashi said finally, "and I think I do remember. You were on the other side of the screen until I said you could come over." He grinned. "My Hiro senses must have been tingling."

Hiro snorted. "Hiro senses. Right." He noticed Tadashi staring. "What?"

"Maybe where you come from you can just change your pants in front of another person. I can't."

"Oh, right. Sorry, I forgot." Hiro hopped up and scurried back to his side of the room.

They had gotten that talk right around the time Hiro 'hit puberty'. So, as soon as he'd turned thirteen, Aunt Cass had sat him down and attempted to explain to him what he'd be experiencing. She hadn't failed exactly, but Hiro didn't notice it happening. Or feel it, really. One of the things she had stressed with him, however, was body privacy, something he hadn't been concerned about before or since. Tadashi had taken that opportunity to pull him aside and explain it a little further (and to go over the other stuff a lot more thoroughly. He'd almost overstepped, honestly) and Hiro was glad for it. Since then, Tadashi had wanted more of his own privacy and Hiro respected that. Or tried to. Sometimes he slipped up. He waited to change until Tadashi left the room. It took him considerably less time, he simply changed from one pair of shorts into another and traded his dirty hoodie for a clean one. He didn't bother with his hair, it always did whatever it wanted. He checked his teeth in the mirror and scurried downstairs.

Aunt Cass had done it again. If she wasn't melting your face off with hot wings or blowing you away with her dessert, she was making your mouth water with stacks of super-thin pancakes ("Crepes!" She and Tadashi both yelled at him,) fresh fruit and whipped cream. Normally Hiro was too distracted to eat, but when he remembered to be hungry (like now, for instance) he could eat himself into a food coma. After Hiro devoured two dozen of the 'crepes'; Tadashi finally put his foot down and shooed him out of the room.

"Not only have you eaten more than half of them; you're also sort of making me sick," his brother told him firmly. "If you're still hungry in ten minutes, you can come back in and have the rest of them. I'm sure Aunt Cass won't mind."

"Not in the least! I'll have to remember to make more next time, I always forget Hiro eats like a horse."

"Well, technically Aunt Cass-"

"Oh no, no you guys don't. Not this early on the morning in a weekend." He frowned. "In the morning. On the weekend. See? I'm not awake enough for this. Come back in a few hours when the sun is higher." Tadashi placed his hands firmly on Hiro's shoulders and forced him out of the room.

"What's the matter big bro? Can't keep up with the genius and the genius's aunt?"

"I know you got that big brain from somewhere and I would not be surprised if it was from her side of the family, but we are not having this conversation now. I am too tired."

Hiro felt a small twinge of guilt. "You are?"

"Oh hey buddy, don't worry, it's not your fault. School's just been rough for the past few weeks." He wrapped his arms around Hiro and gave him a quick hug. Then he smirked and pushed the younger boy onto his bed.

Or tried to. Hiro spun, caught Tadashi's wrist, and pulled him down on top of him. They fell in a tangle of arms and legs. Aunt Cass had turned the radio on as they'd ascended the stairs and was singing along with it. That was a relief, because if she'd heard them she'd be up in a heartbeat. Hiro suddenly recalled a time from when they were younger. He and Tadashi had been wrestling around on the floor one evening after the cafe was closed. They had gotten a little too rough and Hiro's head had slammed against the wall. It probably would have been no big deal, but that was before he knew how to keep quiet and he'd squealed like a stuck pig. Not only had their wrestling matches ended, but he'd gotten Tadashi in trouble. Or maybe that was too harsh. Tadashi had gotten a heavy scolding and been reprimanded regarding 'fighting' and 'Hiro's size'. Hiro had a feeling that if their dad had been alive, he'd have been more understanding.

Tadashi had been trying to get up while Hiro was lost in thought, but the younger boy had a vice grip on his older brother's wrist. Hiro blinked his dark eyes and looked up into Tadashi's lighter ones. For some reason, his brother blushed. Hiro reached up and wrapped his arms around Tadashi's shoulders. He pulled down slow, expecting Tadashi to try and break away. It didn't happen, and Hiro wound up with his older brother's head on his chest. It felt strange, not in a bad way, but in a we-haven't-done-this-in-a-long-time-and-I-don't-know-why kind of way. He heard and felt Tadashi sigh, a pleasant rumble that rolled through his body.

"What are we doing, Hiro?"

"I think we're cuddling."

"You think we're cuddling?"

"Well here, come up closer."

Tadashi shifted up so his head was on the pillow and Hiro wiggled around until he was tucked up against Tadashi's front. He felt pleasantly warm and just a little fuzzy around the edges. His eyelids were heavy and he pressed the heels of his hands against them.

"How come we don't ever do this anymore?"

"Do what?"

"Cuddle."

"Aunt Cass thinks we're too old for it."

"Oh."

"We had that talk, remember? Something about it being inappropriate for our age group, yadda-yadda-yadda." A pause. "Yadda." Tadashi giggled.

"Well maybe we should start doing it again. I mean just when Aunt Cass isn't around." Hiro held his breath.

"I'll admit, I have missed it. It feels like I never see you anymore." Tadashi seemed to be considering it. "But if she finds out I don't know how she'll react."

"We can just tell her I'm having nightmares."

A long pause. "Are you?"

"No. I mean yes. I mean sort of? They're scary dreams but I don't know what they're about. I just always wake up afraid."

"How long has that been going on?"

"A while." He didn't say, 'since you started attending college classes', or 'since you started spending less time with me'. Those things weren't Tadashi's fault and he didn't want to lay on any guilt.

Tadashi adjusted his position and pulled Hiro close. "I'm here for you little brother. If you ever need to sleep with me after one of those dreams, you can just come over." He softened his voice to a whisper. "I've missed us being close too."

Those words soothed something deep down inside Hiro, something he didn't even know he'd been feeling. A goofy smile slid across his face, and he ducked his head to hide it. Tadashi settled his nose somewhere behind the smaller boy's neck and was out. Hiro could feel the change in his breathing. He let his own eyes fall shut and fell forward into oblivion.


It wasn't a long nap by any means, just enough time to get the big hand on the clock to move from one spot to the other. Hiro woke up feeling comforted, until he noticed that the spot Tadashi had been in was empty. It was still warm though, implying that he'd left recently. Chill, Hiro scolded himself. He worked his way to his feet and bounced over to his computer. He pulled up his bot-fighting page and started looking for something challenging. Ooh, Hiccup was working on a new bot! And Merida was issuing a pay-to-play challenge to anyone brave enough to take on the two-headed monster she and her brothers had created last summer. Even Hiro hadn't destroyed it yet. ("We made it specifically to throw off your bot," she'd said the one time he'd tried.) Watching other, less experienced people try to take it down was a laugh. That's why there was a set price. Merida was nothing if not fair.

He heard footsteps on the stairs and killed the page. Tadashi appeared, looking rough. Come to think of it, Hiro couldn't remember the last time Tadashi hadn't seemed so tired. No, yes he could, it was back before he'd started college, when they'd graduated from high school. Hiro had been at the top of the class, Tadashi just behind him. The younger had vehemently denied his right to a speech, preferring to devote his energies to the end-of-the-year prank. He and a bunch of other kids had filled the school pool with mystery-flavor kool aid, hidden stink bombs in every single vent (that had been a great time,) super-glued a bunch of lockers shut (specifically the ones in the gym where all the asshole jocks hung out,) replaced the coffee in the teacher's lounge with decaf, and hung a bunch of cheerleader's uniforms from the gym's rafters. They'd done it about a month before school ended so they could enjoy the chaos, and chaos it was. Ah, memories.

"What's got you so happy?" Tadashi asked as he made his way towards his bed.

"Just remembering the last month of school."

"Was it you who got the moths in the last week?"

"I'll never tell." That had happened purely by accident, but who was he to give away the secret. "What are you doing?"

"Gonna help Aunt Cass clean the cafe before opening tomorrow, then it's dinner out with my friends." He smiled. "You?"

"The usual."

"Staying up late so you can sleep all day? Nerd." Tadashi grabbed his hat and smoothed it onto his head. He started to leave again but paused at the top of the stairs.

"Something on your mind?"

"Aunt Cass is going out of town next weekend. I was just wondering if you might want to hang out? And do something she maybe wouldn't approve of?" His tone was cautious, soft.

"Something she wouldn't approve of?"

"I mean, we'll have the TV and I've got this game she thinks you won't like." He smirked. "I know how bad you are at first person shooters."

"Sounds like a challenge."

"That's the plan. So, you up for it?"

"You know it."

"Awesome." He tossed Hiro a wave and clomped down the stairs.

Hiro spent the remainder of the day tinkering with his bot and chatting with his fellow builders online. Jack had uploaded some new footage of his Baby Tooth, a sort of hummingbird-fairy hybrid. Hiro had gone against it in battle and had gotten more and more frustrated. The bot was tiny and incredibly speedy. He'd made the mistake of throwing down his controller and Jack had seized the opportunity and had Tooth pull out the battery. Hiro had lost by technicality. Even Hiccup, whose bots were as incredible as they were strong, couldn't stand up against Tooth. Hiro knew he was working on a bot of a similar size in an attempt to make it even. Hiro didn't think it was going to work.

Night came. Hiro grabbed his bot and a wad of cash. He tiptoed down the stairs and snuck out into the warm, clear night. He loved walking at night in San-Fran, it was as dead now as it was busy during the day. He wound his way through familiar back alleys, avoided the night life scene, and found his way to Merida's underground establishment. Her dad was so cool that he let her and the boys rent this place out, provided they didn't get into any real trouble. It was safe and betting happened on the super down-low, so it was no surprise that it was a favorite hang-out of the bot-fighting newbies. He took his bot and made his way over to the counter that served as their 'bar'. Merida and Anna were behind the counter complaining about their hair, but their eyes lit up when they saw him.

"Hey Hiro! You're early!" Anna squealed.

"There's nothing to do at home. What's planned for tonight?"

"The usual lineup. We've got Mordu up first for anyone who's a beginner, then Elsa's Marshmallow for the more experienced. Hiccup brought Toothless, but after last week I don't think anyone will go up against him." Merida rolled her eyes.

"I will."

"We know you will," Anna giggled, "but we're talking about everyone else."

"Jack's bringing Tooth, Guy has Belt, Eep has her adorable but terrifying cat thing and her brother is bringing Douglas."

"Sounds like there will be a bunch of great fights tonight."

"Well we're only open two days a week. Mum refuses to budge on school nights and even in the summer she says it's too risky." Merida sighed. "The boys will be wreaking havoc tonight too, no doubt."

"Are they bringing that bot from before? The one no one's beaten yet?"

Merida shook her head. "We've had it here the past two months and people are getting frustrated."

Hiro chuckled. "You know it's good when Hiccup and I both can't beat it."

"Well Jack hasn't even tried yet. He just sits and watches every time." Anna twirled one braid around her finger.

Merida groaned. "We hid the weaknesses on purpose. Didn't want to make it too easy for him, but I'm sure he'll figure it out eventually." She turned to Hiro. "You staying all night?"

"I plan to. You are only open two nights a week, after all."

"I hate Mondays but this makes it easier."

Hiro raised an eyebrow. "Even in summer?"

"Summer is worse."

"Her mom is home all day and keeps trying to talk her into doing something else," Anna explained.

"She can't stand the thought of me actually enjoying robot fights, but it's totally cool if the boys are okay with it."

"She'll come around. Oh, are you still in the archery club?"

"And kicking everyone's tail. That's the one good thing about summer; I can get in a lot of practice."

"Do you still have targets all over the house?"

She gave him a cheeky grin. "Mum took them all down but I remember where they were. There are darts everywhere."

The door opened and Anna waved wildly at her sister, Elsa. The blonde had her bot in her arms, a clumsy looking thing that was actually quite powerful. She set it carefully on the bar and made a face at Hiro.

"If he's fighting I'm withdrawing my bot."

"Hiro knows the rules," Merida replied with raised eyebrows, "and he won't break them again."

"You can only hustle once," Hiro agreed.

Merida smacked the back of his head. "Not. At. All."

"Right, right."

He had attempted it back before he realized it was a flat rate. This establishment didn't cater to the right crowd, and besides, it was nice to have a safe place to go. That hadn't prevented the triplets from dragging him outside and giving him what-for before they sat him down and explained the rules to him. He'd had to wear pants for a week so no one would ask questions. Now he kept his head down and only bet when he was sure he'd win. The regular crowd started filtering in, so he made his way over to Hiccup's favorite pit and sat down to wait. Sure enough, the green-eyed boy showed up with Jack and Astrid right around the time it got packed.

It was summer, so the fighting lasted until two in the morning, but Hiro still had ground to cover before he would get home. Guy hugged him tight at the door and Jack slapped him on the back.

"Will you be here tomorrow?" The fair-skinned boy asked.

"Probably not. You know I only come one day a week."

"Right. Don't want to run into any of the people you've hustled." Guy ruffled his hair.

"Hey, cut it out. It was nice watching you guys fight."

"Team battles are awesome. But I'm always the distraction." Guy pouted at Jack.

"Not my fault that Tooth is better at exploiting weaknesses. But I've got to go, Hiccup's helping me work on a new bot."

"A new one?"

"Even more intimidating than Tooth, but not better." He grinned and waved. "Later."

"Guy?" Eep came out the door just then, holding her bot. "We've got to head out before my dad calls the Navy."

"We were late one time. By ten minutes."

"I told you he would do it." She smiled. "Lovely to see you Hiro, as always."

"Nice to see you too."

They walked off hand in hand and Hiro felt a certain peace. Then he turned and headed down the alley. There was a fight nearby that he didn't want to miss.


Hiro returned to the cafe around six in the morning. His pockets were stuffed with cash and he was pleasantly tired. He snuck up the stairs, grabbed a banana on his way through the kitchen, and ate it as he ascended. He dropped the peel in the trash and stripped down, fully intending to fall into bed, when a noise from Tadashi's side of the room distracted him. It sounded sort of afraid. He turned, surprised, but couldn't see anything through that damned screen. He hesitated a moment before he padded over, quiet as a mouse, and slid it back.

Tadashi was curled up tight on one side of the bed, brow furrowed. His skin was paler than normal and there was a sheen of sweat on his forehead. Hiro tiptoed around and placed is hand against the skin there. His brother was burning up. He bit his lip.

"Dashi?"

Eyelids fluttered and opened. Tadashi looked up, eyes glazed, clearly half-asleep. "What sit?"

Hiro repressed a giggle. "What's wrong?"

"Dreamin'. Tired. Gotto bed."

Hiro smoothed his palm over Tadashi's flushed cheek. "Want me to stay with you?"

"Sounds good. Ham and egg?" His head flopped back onto the pillow and he started to snore.

Well that was... weird. Hiro went back to his side of the room and pulled on a long shirt. He returned to Tadashi's bed and settled himself onto the other side of it, facing opposite his brother. A few seconds later, he felt Tadashi scoot until their backs were touching. There was a loud, content sigh, and Tadashi's breathing settled into an even rhythm. Hiro felt himself smile as he drifted off to sleep.


Ta daaaaaaaaa!

Hopefully the word count is worth the wait?

I imagine that a tired Tadashi spews all sorts of nonsense.

Also, I'm sure you all know, but I don't own any of the Dreamworks or Disney Characters.

Which is good.

Sort of.

See you next week!