As Tadashi blinked open his eyes, he got the sense that he was being watched. Turning this way and that, he finally located the source of the staring.

Hiro. His little brother. Sitting a few metres away, just looking at him.

The passage of time hit him. Hiro had changed – Hiro had grown up. He was taller now, more muscular now. He'd cut his hair, so he looked more grown-up, too. He wasn't a fourteen-year-old beanpole anymore – here stood a sixteen-year-old with a stronger build. His eyes, his gaze – they had changed too. More confident. Hardier. And right now, filled with concern.

"Tadashi," he breathed when he realized Tadashi was up.

Tadashi groaned. "Were you watching me sleep?"

"Um – yeah."

Tadashi sighed. "Not much I can do about it, eh?" He tried to sit up, and winced. "How did you get in here?"

"I insisted. Aunt Cass insisted, actually. I don't know how, but the doctors gave in, and well, here I am."

"I thought I told them to turn all visitors away."

Hiro recoiled as if he'd been slapped, and Tadashi felt a pang of guilt. But that was how he truly felt. He couldn't bear to be seen like this – a cripple.

"Tadashi, come home," Hiro said softly. "Come out of this hospital."

Tadashi shook his head. "I can't. Don't you see? There's no place for me in the outside world anymore. I'd just be a burden to you and Aunt Cass, always getting in the way. Let me stay here."

"No." Hiro's voice had taken on a much firmer quality. "I'm not giving up on you."

Tadashi flinched at the words that he'd said to Hiro so many times before, now thrown back in his face. "Don't say that."

"Well, I am. Because it's true. I'm not giving up on you – you're my brother."

Tadashi looked at himself. "How can you do it?" he whispered. "How can you look at me, and still remember me as your brother? Look at my hands!"

He waved them, and Hiro's eyes widened. "Look at these stumps! They're ruined! For God's sake, I only have one leg! I'm a cripple!"

"Don't say that – "

"I'm a cripple." Suddenly exhausted, Tadashi leaned back. "I've been ruined. Permanently. And I don't know what to do anymore."

~~Page Break~~

Hiro stared at Tadashi. He'd changed, for sure. For one thing, he was missing fingers. For another, he was missing half his left leg – it ended in just a stump now. But more than that, his spirit had changed.

Looking into Tadashi's eyes, Hiro saw none of the optimism, the joy, that had always been there in the big brother he'd known growing up. Gone was the boundless enthusiasm for everything, the keenness to learn, the eagerness to help, that Hiro had always associated with Tadashi. Eyes were like a window into the soul, and Tadashi's had always been flung wide open, inviting everyone to see. The hopes and dreams that he had cultivated had been there to read in his wide, brown eyes.

Now, instead, Hiro saw nothing but defeat. The eyes were duller now, and overshadowed. Lifeless, almost. They flicked from side to side, before seeming to give up and rest on anything but Hiro, with none of the straightforwardness and honesty they'd had before. The hopes and dreams had wilted like flowers in winter. Hiro sensed that the window was being drawn closed, and Tadashi was retreating into himself. There was only one thing to be seen in Tadashi's eyes – a rising barrier, built of steel. And behind it, barely visible, was the loss, the uncertainty, and the hurt.

Tadashi's spirit had been completely crushed. Perhaps there was something to be said for comas, and the blissful ignorance that went along with them.

"Tadashi," he breathed, "please. Come home. We all love you – Aunt Cass, our friends. Mochi, that damn cat, knows something's up – he's so restless. And Baymax – he's waiting for you too."

Tadashi's head lifted up, and something sparked in his eyes. Was that curiosity? "Baymax?" he murmured. "He's still functional?"

"Oh, yeah." Hiro forced himself to smile. "You might want to come home and see for yourself. A lot has changed in those eighteen months."

The spark of curiosity in Tadashi's eyes seemed to burn for a few more moments, before something quenched it. Tadashi sank back onto his pillows, once more the picture of defeat. "Fine," he said flatly, "I'll come home."

"You will?"

"I get the feeling that you won't give up until you get me home, anyway."

"Thank you," Hiro stammered, getting up. "I'll tell the doctors!"

Tadashi didn't move as Hiro bolted out the door.

You're right, Tadashi. I'm not giving up on you. I'm not going to rest until you're fully home – not just your body, the brother that I love.