Light poured into the surrounding room, making Hiro realize that he was awake. Morning had arrived.
Unexpectedly, a deep pain arose in his stomach, forcing the young boy's eyes to flash open as he was reminded of the actions that took place the previous day. "Shit," Hiro mused as he curled himself into a ball, "Each path I take leads me to another situation like that… Always with Tadashi…"
Suddenly, he sat himself up, facing his pillow, dismally repeating, "I want. To be. A normal. Brother!" as he slammed his face into the plushy object in front of him. While Hiro continued to move, he became aware of the liquid quietly sloshing around his grey pyjama bottoms.
"Ughhhh!" this time he exclaimed, grabbing a few tissues in an attempt to clean himself off. "It's almost every night now… I'm glad I never remember them." After getting up, and throwing on a fresh set of clothing, he noticed that his brother wasn't there. "That's right, he left for nerd school."
The young boy tiptoed over towards his brother's side of the room, those big, brown, inquisitive eyes examining the blankets all askew atop Tadashi's bed. As he paced forwards, Hiro picked up that same light scent - sweet, almost like a pastry. Without thinking, he rushed forwards, and let himself fall onto his brother's bed, becoming lost within the sheets.
Tadashi…
A navy blue hat was resting on top of the nightstand.
Tadashi…
A picture, displaying Hiro and his older sibling a few years back.
Tadashi…
Hiro analyzed himself, ashamed over how his mind had come to work.
"Fucking Tadashi!"
The dark haired boy grabbed the elder's pillow, growing to be completely engulfed by the sugary aroma.
In truth, Hiro did go out bot fighting last night, but not solely for it's more lucrative aspects, or the bragging rights. This wasn't the first time he had attempted to escape his problems, trying to wash them away with a remote control robot and some cheating criminals (of all things). Over the last few months, and especially the last few days, Hiro's mind had become increasingly clouded. He had found himself feeling randomly depressed and anxious, wishing for the feeling to go away. Now that the source of it had become more obvious, his head kept managing to spiral into a pit.
There had been times as a child when Hiro's favorite point in the day was when he could come home and see his 'Dashi', and in all honestly, it basically still was… he just regretted a lot of the reasoning behind it. Him and Tadashi were each other's closest companions, and they always wanted the best for each other, but Hiro didn't want to be imagining the thought of his brother moaning in sweat, staring down over him whenever he let his mind wander.
Hiro groaned at just the thought of it, a light pink coming across his cheeks as a flicker waded down below. "I don't think this is ever going to fade away… I've felt like this for years… But as long as Tadashi doesn't know, I'll be fine."
Being fed up with his own desire, Hiro decided to get off of his brother's bed, and head outside to clear his mind. It was often that he found himself going out for walks along the various streets and side alleys in San Fransokyo, he had always been drawn to go outside. Even though he also craved designing new bots and such on his computer, his seemed to find peace in a less confined space. He got bored easily, already knowing much about the inner workings of his surroundings, as well as being able to figure things out so quickly… It was just easier for him to connect more with himself when he was out on his own, exploring.
After getting dressed, he walked downstairs slowly, still in somewhat of a drowsy state. Hiro was welcomed to the chatter of a few new customers (rare, since the store had just opened up a few minutes earlier), and the busy movements and mutterings of his sleep deprived Aunt Cass, most definitely hopped up on far too much caffeine. "That's right, it's a Monday…"
The store was open on Saturdays and Sundays as well, just with far shorter hours, and late in the night. Hiro walked over to his Aunt, trying not to disturb any customers as he strode by, "Hey, Aunt Cass," Hiro piped up, his Aunt spinning around in a nervous tizzy, "Do you mind if I take a walk? Tadashi's gone to school, and I'm bored."
"Sure! Do you want any treats before you go? I still have a lot of that Cinnamon Raisin Bread you boys made last night."
Now that Hiro was reminded of it, he was feeling a little peckish. "Uh, sure, I guess."
The woman in front of him beamed, delighted that her nephew was taking any treats at all instead of rushing out the door in his usual manner, "Great!" She spun around quickly, hurrying to find a slice of the bread with a big, goofy smile spread across her face. Once she found one, she quickly snatched it up, giving it to Hiro along with a fresh napkin. "Here you go, sweety! Have fun, and be safe!"
"...Thanks, Aunt Cass," Hiro said with a slight blush on his cheeks, embarrassed since a few customers had turned around and chuckled at the close-nit counteraction. The young boy turned, dashing out the door to get away from his very kind, but also very clingy Aunt after taking the slice of bread from her hands. Even so, he still loved her to pieces.
Once he was out the door, Hiro walked to his left, almost out of instinct since he was so familiar with the streets surrounding him. He knew immediately where he wanted to go, which was a frequent spot of his. "This shouldn't take long, especially since there aren't many people walking around so early in the morning…"
Hiro lifted up his right arm, looking at his watch before taking a bite of the succulent bread, wiping away some leftover crumbs with his napkin. As he read the numbers, it said 6:41am, glowing in a bright blue. The watch that was held on his wrist was actually one the first things he made, and a feeling of satisfaction was still present whenever he had it on.
When Hiro was eight years old, Tadashi was first starting to teach him how to tinker with things. Even from a young age, he had always had a fondness for creating small gadgets, but had never actually built anything he really used. The majority of those things were turning cogs, an assortment of wires, and even some potatoes that managed to serve as power sources for both batteries, and electrolytic cells (which he still kept in a few shoe boxes underneath his bed as mementos).
In more doting memories, Tadashi had always been a source of inspiration for little Hiro. He would watch as his older brother would experiment with various chemicals for chemistry projects, quietly observing as the reactions would take place. In one particular instance, Tadashi had brought home a hot plate, along with some other instruments his teacher would let him bring home frequently (he had always managed to get away with doing more secretive 'side projects' that were outside of the curriculum, most teachers always seeing so much potential in him).
"Dashi," a little six year old Hiro had said, sitting in a chair next to his brother, "what are you doing?"
"I'm trying out an experiment, Hiro," the ten year old stated, giving his brother a warm smile, "Mr. S is letting me toggle around with more of his stuff again." Like Hiro, Tadashi had also managed to get into more advanced classes from an early age. In what should have been the beginning of his middle school years, the elder brother had managed to find himself in classes with elevated material, always taking a liking to the more scientific and mathematical courses.
Hiro beamed, always eager to find out more about his brother's activities. "What's it involve? Dashi," the child scooted closer to his brother, barely a head above the table's surface, "can I see?"
"Sure, Hiro," Tadashi said with a reassuring smile, "someday, you'll be telling me about your experiments."
The little boy was in awe, thinking he could be just like his brother one day, or maybe even better. Suddenly, the child stood taller on the chair, his knees resting as his support while he shouted, "Woo-hoo!" the gap between his two front teeth evident as he smiled with a big, toothy grin.
Unexpectedly, the elder brother took out a little container filled with a grainy, blue substance that slightly resembled sand out from his backpack. As the six year old was about to open his mouth, the other spoke, "It's copper sulfate, and I'll let you watch to see if you know what's going on."
The younger boy nodded, his large, brown eyes completely focused on his brother's actions. As Tadashi began to conduct his experiment, he took one of the graduated cylinders out from behind the hot plate, and placed it on a balance that was set to zero. Once its weight was taken, he quickly jotted down 'Graduated Cylinder: 4.17 grams' before taking the glass instrument off and putting it back on the table. Soon after, he began to pour the grains of copper sulfate into the graduated cylinder, also taking it's measurement with the two of them combined, writing down 'Graduated Cylinder with Copper Sulfate: 7.17 grams'.
Once both measurements were down, he subtracted the weight of the graduated cylinder alone from the weight of it with the added copper sulfate, deducing it was 3.00 grams. After jotting that down, Hiro watched as Tadashi set the hot plate to seven, placing his goggles on. "You can never be too safe, always wear your goggles Hiro," the older said as his brother was still set on watching the experiment, his eyes transfixed on the hot plate.
Tadashi handed his younger brother a pair of goggles, making sure they were adjusted right. The boy giggled, spouting out, "Hehe, Dashi's a nerd," as he stuck his tongue out playfully. The older boy just smiled, and continued on with the experiment.
After placing the partially filled cylinder on top of the hot plate, he began to slowly break the vibrantly blue crystals apart with some forceps, repeating the action every couple of minutes. Soon enough, what seemed like steam started to come out from the broken particles, and their color slowly transitioned into a light grey. Without realizing it, the little boy let out a quiet, "Woahhh" in response.
After around twenty minutes, the particles were reduced to a fine powder, and had lost any remnants of their blue coloring. Tadashi then took a pair of tongs, and slowly lifted the graduated cylinder onto the balance, recording it's new weight. In his note pad, he wrote 'Graduated Cylinder with Grey Copper Sulfate: 6.12 grams', and then did the same subtraction sequence he did before when the crystals were blue. Right after, he wrote, 'Grey Copper Sulfate: 1.95 grams', and then subtracted that from it's original weight before hiding his notes.
Hiro gave a little pouty face, asking for his brother to let him see as he scrambled to grab the note pad, but Tadashi said he'd like to hear what his younger sibling had concluded first. The small boy sat still once more, placing his thoughts together. "Well…" he paused for a moment, "Since there was steam coming out from the copper sulfate, there had to be some kind of substance trapped inside, right?" Tadashi silently nodded as his brother continued his thoughts.
"...And, with your measurements, it seems like you were trying to figure out the difference between the regular copper sulfate and the grey one, right?" Tadashi gave another nod.
"So... Was your experiment to see how much liquid was trapped inside?" After a small pause, Tadashi smiled, and got off his chair before lifting his brother up and throwing him around in the air. Even though his older brother was only ten, Hiro was always a small boy, creating an easy method for Tadashi to carry him around (and making tickle fights especially easy to win).
The younger boy smiled, a flush across his cheeks as he giggled in excitement, "Dashi, put me down!"
The older boy complied, placing Hiro back in his chair before letting his palm rest against the others head to tousle his hair. A small chuckle was heard before Tadashi spoke, "So, do you wanna know what was inside the Copper Sulfate?"
The smaller boy nodded, eager to learn. "Okay. There's this term used for when water becomes trapped in various crystals and salts as they solidify, and it's called a hydrate. To figure out how much hydrate was in the copper sulfate, all I had to do was heat it until the H2O molecules expanded, and evaporated."
Hiro looked up, fascinated by the new knowledge, "...So, how much was there? You didn't tell me the weight of the hydrate."
Tadashi smiled, impressed with how quickly his younger sibling was able to pick up on information, "I was just about to get to that. I took the original weight of the copper sulfate, and then subtracted its new weight from it (which happened to be 1.05 grams) to get the weight of the hydrate. Now that I have that, I can convert it's weight in grams to find out how many moles of the hydrate there is, or even how many molecules of H2O there are in that specific sample. All I need to do is use some dimensional analysis, but we'll get to that later."
Hiro's face was plastered with a another toothy grin, always dumbfounded when his brother taught him new things. Tadashi had always admired his younger brother's seemingly endless thirst for knowledge, and suddenly, he had the urge to pull him into big hug.
Without expecting it, Hiro was suddenly pulled into the large embrace, taken aback by his brother's actions. After processing the situation, he smiled from his brother's kindness, and pulled at the back of Tadashi's shirt, "Dashi, don't leave me, okay?"
The older brother smiled as well, "Don't worry, Hiro, I'll always be here for you. I'm your brother, aren't I?"
After recalling the memory, Hiro was left with the same goofy grin he had back in the day watching his brother's experiments. The reminiscence left the now teenage boy with a pool of warmth circling around in his chest, and once his mind bounced back into reality, he realized he'd just about arrived at his destination.
"Woah, that was faster than I'd expected." Hiro thought as he came across a large rock, sitting in front of a picturesque lake. Once he sat down, adjusting to the coolness of the rough surface beneath him, he looked out, basking in the early morning sun above. A sheen of yellow rested across the entire surface of the lake, making everything seem as if it had been painted with tiny little brushstrokes.
Suddenly, he also realized that he hadn't taken more than a bite of the bread Aunt Cass gave him. "Huh, I would've normally eaten that by now."
The small boy looked down, taking a large bite of the sweet bread as he took in its aromatic scent. "It smells sweet… Like Tadashi."
