A/N: Thank you, thank you for reviewing! Taking two minutes to tell me what you think makes my day!
So, this chapter is a kind-of in-between story that I got carried away on... XD Most of it is a flashback (the part in italics), but I'll get back to the main story next chapter!
Tadashi slowly opened his eyes. It took him a minute to figure out where he was - the ceiling looked a little weird. Then he felt the warm weight half on top of him and the soft, thick hair under his chin. He lifted his head slightly and pressed his lips to the mop of dark hair.
It wasn't very bright in the room, the sun blocked out by the snow still falling heavily outside, so it was hard to tell how late it was. Tadashi glanced around at the clock. 9:43. Yup, they had slept in. Thank goodness it was a Saturday.
He debated whether he should get up and risk waking Hiro up, or just lie there and enjoy the moment. Well, what did he need to do if he got up, anyway? His brain responded with far too many options - from making breakfast to cleaning to homework, and a million miscellaneous tasks in between.
Shut up, he told his brain.
Well, he would try to get up and if- Hiro whimpered slightly and clenched his fist tighter in Tadashi's shirt. That was what he'd thought. It looked like he was staying in bed - for a little while longer, anyway.
Tadashi ran his fingers through his brother's hair and took a closer look at him. Hiro's forehead shone with sweat, yet he shivered against Tadashi. His breathing was rapid and shallow, and Tadashi could hear the air rasping in his throat. Maybe Tadashi should see about taking him to the doctor later. He wondered how long Hiro had really been feeling off. You didn't just get like this overnight.
Tadashi's mind drifted off to the last time he'd held Hiro like this. It happened less and less frequently as they grew older, and Tadashi realized he missed it. The last time was nearly two years ago...
Tadashi looked up from his homework as his brother trudged into the room, dumping his backpack on the floor and throwing himself down on his bed.
"Hey, Hiro. How was school?" Tadashi asked. There was no response.
Tadashi stood and moved toward his brother's bed. "Hiro?"
The boy was lying facedown on top of the covers, head buried in his arms.
"Hiro, are you alright?" Tadashi sat on the edge of the bed, concerned.
"I'm fine." The voice was muffled and choked off in... was that a sob?
Tadashi sat there, shocked. He didn't know what to do. Hiro never cried.
The older boy placed a hand on his brother's back and rubbed softly. "You know I'm here if you want to talk about it, right?" Tadashi said after a minute.
Hiro was shaking slightly. He didn't answer and Tadashi just sat there for a long while, rubbing a hand across his brother's back.
At long last Hiro lifted his head, looking up at Tadashi through the thick bangs that fell across his eyes. There were tear tracks on his cheeks and... Tadashi gasped, taking his brother's face in his hands to tilt it upwards.
"Hiro..." Gently, Tadashi ran his thumb over Hiro's cheekbone, where a large purple bruise was forming.
"Who did this to you?" The older boy asked, angered.
Hiro looked down, not meeting Tadashi's eye. "I... I just... ran into a wall. It was an accident."
Tadashi just sighed and looked at Hiro. "Seriously? You're still trying excuses like that on me?"
"It's true-" Hiro started defensively, but Tadashi cut him off gently.
"It's not true. Who did this to you?"
Hiro looked down again, playing with a thread from one of his blankets. "Just some jerks at school," he finally replied.
"What did they do?"
"It's nothing, okay? Just drop it!"
Tadashi looked at his brother for a long moment and then sighed again.
"If that was all, you wouldn't be this upset," Tadashi said, trying to suppress the anger he felt towards those jerks who were always picking on his little brother. "What else is wrong?"
"Nothing," Hiro muttered.
"Hiro!"
"Fine! My foot hurts! Are you happy now?"
Tadashi sighed yet again. "Come here."
He helped Hiro sit up with his legs over the edge of the bed. As he did, he noticed several more small bruises and scrapes on Hiro's arms and legs but decided not to comment.
"Which foot?"
"My right," Hiro mumbled.
Tadashi took the appendage in his hands and gently slipped off Hiro's shoe, not missing Hiro's grimace of pain. Pulling off the sock as well, Tadashi gasped at the sight that greeted him. Hiro's ankle was swollen and bruised rather badly. "You sprained it? What happened?" A sudden revelation occurred to Tadashi. "Wait, you walked home on this? What were you thinking? You know I would have picked you up if you had just asked me! Why didn't you call?"
"Tadashi!" Hiro cut him off. "See, this is why I don't like to tell you stuff. You make a huge fuss over nothing!"
"This isn't nothing!" Tadashi said. But then he decided to back off.
"I'm sorry, Hiro. I just... I worry sometimes. And I really care about you. I don't like to see you hurt."
Hiro just looked down at his hands, not knowing what to say.
After a moment, Tadashi stood up with a sigh. "Well, we'd better get some ice on that thing before it swells to the size of an elephant."
Hiro started to stand obligingly, but Tadashi pushed him back down. "Oh no, you don't. Stay right here and I'll be back in a minute."
When Tadashi got back upstairs, a plastic bag full of ice and water wrapped in a towel in his hand, Hiro was still sitting on the edge of the bed, but had pulled up his shirt and was looking at his stomach. When he heard Tadashi, Hiro dropped the shirt quickly and glanced up at Tadashi with a slightly guilty look on his face.
"What is it?" Tadashi asked, reaching forward to pull up his brother's shirt before Hiro could stop him. He got a glimpse of a large, ugly bruise spread across Hiro's side before the boy shoved the shirt back down with a "Hey!"
"Hiro!" Tadashi said. "You've got to tell me about stuff like this! You need help! You can't just ignore it and hope it goes away! You're not going to get any better unless you let someone help you! When are you going to tell me everything that happened?"
"Like you care anyway."
Tadashi had taken another breath to continue his rant, but Hiro's mumble effectively shut him up.
"You... you think I don't care about you?" Tadashi was shocked. What had happened to his precious otouto?
"Why would you?" Hiro asked, looking up at Tadashi with pain in his eyes. "I'm a freak. I'm too smart for my own good. Nobody cares about me, why would you?" His voice was rising and his breath was coming in shorter gasps. "Nobody likes me, not even people I thought were my friends! Why would you be any different? I'm just a worthless freak!" Hiro's voice broke and he began to sob. Tadashi dropped the bag of ice and scooped Hiro into a hug. They sat like that for a long time as Hiro sobbed and Tadashi rocked him back and forth and whispered soothing words into his hair- "It's alright. It's okay. I love you, Otouto, and nothing will ever change that. I love you. I love you so much. You are perfect just the way you are. You are kind. You are caring. You are brave. You are strong. You are creative. You mean the world to me. I could never live without you. I love you so much. You are enough, and don't ever let anyone tell you that you aren't."
Sometime in the middle of this they moved to the head of the bed, and Tadashi lay there with Hiro's head on his chest, tears soaking his shirt as Hiro's sobs quieted and his breathing calmed. Then Tadashi just stroked his hand through Hiro's hair and hummed a soft melody until Hiro's breaths evened out altogether. And then he was asleep.
A/N: Whew! It takes a lot longer to write this than I thought! Fyi, the rest of my updates probably won't be this fast.
Anyway, what do you think? It didn't go exactly the way I'd planned... I meant for Hiro to tell Tadashi what actually happened (he wouldn't get that upset over just a beating), but maybe I'll mention it next chapter. Also, I didn't want to end it right there, but I couldn't really find a good ending spot soon after this. So thus it ends...
Last note: I'm not sure if I'm going to put Baymax in the story or not. What do y'all want? I love him, but he's hard to write... And I'm pretty much just focusing on the brothers- it's just a fluffy story. And if y'all have any ideas for this story, please tell me! I have a very basic idea of what I want to happen, but not a whole lot. So review!
Thanks for reading!
