"Get up, get up!" Tadashi pounced on Hiro's bed, nearly making the younger fall off. "C'mon! It's Christmas!"
Hiro's eyes fluttered open. "Wh- what?" He mumbled in confusion. "Stop yelling in my ear, it's like an Earth Quake." Hiro growled, wiping the crust out of his bloodshot eyes.
"Tierd?" Tadashi smirked yet said in a stern tone. "Don't think I forgot about last night, because after we open our presents with Aunt Cass..." He paused, trying to calm himself down. "You won't be leaving this house until I get some real answers, and I hope you know that."
With that, Tadashi shoved Hiro out of bed.
"Now get up, knucklehead! Aunt Cass already is waiting for us with the camera in the living room." Tadashi impatiently nagged. "She's even playing the Yule Log on TV."
"Alright..." Hiro groaned. He felt like utter shit, his legs felt sore, his arms felt sore, his whole body felt sore! Not to mention the crick in his neck & his aching back. Yet, the spot on his leg where he was attacked was surprisingly healed.
Weird.
Hiro stood up, he stared at his brother curiously. Tadashi looked at him with wide eyes.
"What?" Hiro asked.
Tadashi blinked in response, face astonished yet worried.
"Hiro, you grew like 4 inches" Tadashi couldn't believe his eyes.
"Huh?" Hiro began to look down at himself, then compared himself to his brother in the mirror. Tadashi was right, last night he was 5'1 now Hiro was 5'5!
"Well, that's good to know. I thought PUBERTY would never!" Hiro laughed, obviously nervous. Tadashi wasn't buying it. He knew that growth spurts like this weren't natural (Especially if Baymax had predicted it).
It was Christmas day and the only present Tadashi yearned for, was the gift of honesty.
"Boys! C'mon already, let's see what Santa has brought you both!" Aunt Cass called to her nieces through the stairway.
Hiro began to dress & noticed that most of his pants and a few of his tops hadn't fit him anymore.
"Uh, I hope Santa brought me new, fitting clothes this year!" Hiro stated, sheepishly.
As they headed downstairs, a mewling noise was notable and caught both the Hamada brother's attention.
"MEOW!" Mochi screeched, frightening them both.
"Mochi?" Tadashi questioned the animal. He knelt down to it's level. "What's wrong, bud?"
He slowly picked up the cat, suddenly Mochi pounced off of Tadashi and landed straight onto Hiro.
The animal latched its paws onto Hiro's face and dug its nails into his skin, hissing in the process.
"Ow! What the hell!" Hiro yelped, while trying to release himself from Mochi's grasp.
"Language." Tadashi scolded.
"Ok, bro. Why don't you just stand here and teach me manners while my face gets torn apart by an overweight Calico." Hiro's sarcasm was intimidating yet intriguing.
"Why is Mochi even scratching me? The cat's never hurt any one of us before!" Hiro questioned.
"Maybe it's because you threw em up the stairs last week..." Tadashi smirked.
Hiro glared in return with a look that either read: "I don't think that's why." Or "I seriously just hate you."
"Boys! How long does it take you to walk downstairs?!" Aunt Cass was waiting on the couch next to the Christmas tree, dressed in one of her traditional 'Ugly Sweaters'.
Both brothers walked into the living room to see the Christmas tree surrounded with perfectly wrapped presents.
"Merry Christmas Aunt Cass." Tadashi grinned.
"Yeah, Merry Christmas!" Hiro said while rubbing the claw marks on his face. Surprisingly, Aunt Cass wasn't paying too much attention to the boys while they were standing, because she never mentioned Hiro's height. He was thankful that he wouldn't have to explain that one, yet.
"Ok, the left side is for Tadashi & the right is for Hiro! Now let's open some gifts!" Cass always loved Christmas, she loved seeing these boys smile. Even if they weren't "technically" her own, she loved them just as much... No, she loved them MORE than any other mother could.
Hiro unraveled his first gift. "No way! An X-Box one?! Oh my God, thanks Aunt Cass!" His excitement was overwhelmingly adorable.
Tadashi then opened his first gift. It was a clothes box. Once he finally opened the box, he couldn't stop laughing.
"Oh Lord." Tadashi giggled. "This one's gotta be from Fred." Tadashi held up a shirt with an embarrasing picture of him screaming. Hiro chuckled, Tadashi looked like a frightened elephant in the picture. The shirt also had a caption that read: "WORLD'S GIRLIEST SCREAM FOR THE WORLD'S AWESOMEST NERD."
"Thanks Fred." Tadashi spoke. This Christmas was off to a great start...
️_ ️
"Now tell me, what happened?" Tadashi's stern voice sent chills up Hiro's spine. "Fess up, what did you do to yourself?"
"I didn't do anything to myself!" Hiro protested. Well, he wasn't lying.
"Where were you last night? One moment you were in bed & the next, you're walking upstairs looking half alive." Tadashi was overly concerned for his brother. Why couldn't Hiro use his big brain for logic?!
"Ok, so here's the story."Hiro began explaining about the bot fight with Saber and the chase, yet once he got to the attack part, he paused.
"Once I was cornered... Saber wasn't there, or his gang. All I saw was a huge animal approaching me and biting me. Then everything went black." Hiro breathed, then began again. "Once I regained consciousness, I was face planted into the ground of the alley, no one was there so I decided to walk... limp home."
Tadashi looked at Hiro with a horrified look. The only thing he could think to himself was: "My baby brother was in all this danger while I was asleep?!"
Hiro looked ashamed, he felt as if all this were his fault. If only he wasn't stupid and wasted his time on bot fights. But being in the right mind after the fact, doesn't change what already happened.
Tadashi walked up to his brother, giving him a warm hug. Hiro closed his eyes within the embrace, wrapping his arms around Tadashi, whispering a silent "I'm sorry." Before opening his eyes again.
Tadashi then freed his grasp on Hiro and applied his hands onto his 'Not as frail' shoulders.
"This doesn't explain the growth spurt." Tadashi piped with a serious expression.
"How am I supposed to know why that happened?" Hiro responded. "I swear I told you everything."
Tadashi's eyes widened as a lightbulb went off in his head. "Lets get Baymax to scan you."
"How's that supposed to help? He scanned me last night and he never gave me a full diagnosis." Hiro argued.
"Well." Tadashi began. "Your growth spurt didn't take full effect until you woke up, so maybe Baymax couldn't create a diagnosis because whatever happened to you hadn't taken full effect yet either."
"Okay... If that's your hypothesis, I say... Go for it." Hiro concluded.
"Ow." Tadashi spoke plainly.
With a sudden inflating noise, Baymax was active.
"Hello, Tadashi. I heard a sound of distress, what seems to trouble you?" The robotic nurse questioned.
"My brother." Tadashi grumbled under his breath.
"I'm sorry, Tadashi. Please repeat that inaudible noise so I may understand your issue." Baymax commented.
"I just need you to scan Hiro." The elder Hamada sighed.
"Scan Complete." Baymax responded soon after. "Hiro appears to be in perfect health, his senses appear to be extremely strong, eyesight is far greater than the average human. Hiro's hearing also appear to be hyper-sensitive, I recommend a quiet atmosphere." There was a pause. "Diagnosis..." Baymax raised his finger like he always did when diagnosing someone. Tadashi waited in anticipation for Baymax's answer. Yet the answer Tadashi was hoping for, he didn't recieve.
"Undetermined?! UNDETERMINED?" The elder Hamada fumed while pacing around the siblings shared bedroom, flailing his arms into the air. "I specifically made this stupid robot for these kind of problems! 2,000 procedures and operations in his microchip and still he has 'UNDETERMINED' as an answer?!"
"Hey, bro?" Hiro called to his brother towards their computer, nerviously. "I think you should read this."
Hiro's computer desktop showed an article on lycanthropy and the effects of it, all of which, Hiro experienced.
Tadashi chuckled. "Pfft, a werewolf?! Hiro this is serious, that's just fiction. We're dealing with a REAL situation right now, ya bonehead."
Hiro rolled his eyes. "Then explain why I can suddenly do this!" Hiro then closed his eyes, once he opened them, they glowed a dark amber color. He then opened his mouth, to reveal sharp canines that scraped his bottom lip. Tadashi looked at his brother in shock.
"Need I say more, or should I say, SHOW more?" Hiro said with charisma. "I'm a freaking wolf!"
Tadashi contemplated what his brother was saying. Was he actually going to believe him?
"Ok." Tadashi began. "So lets say, you were a werewolf..."
"I am." Hiro interrupted.
Tadashi stared at him, then returned to what he was saying.
"So if you were... One... Does that mean you can transform into like, a full out wolf guy?" Like the one's in those horror movies?" Tadashi was frightened now, what did his little brother get himself into?!
"I hope not." Hiro worried. Hie then took out his phone and checked the weather app. "If I'm correct, a werewolf only transforms on the night of a full moon... And tonight is..let's see here... Aha, found it... Tonights a..." His face dropped.
"Tonights a full moon."