((TRIGGER WARNINGS: Major homophobia, Some violence and threatened sexual harassment to main character))
Hiro didn't know it was possible for his whole life to be turned upside down so quickly. On Monday, things had started out completely normal-just another day working on his family's farm, and considering his brother was home for the summer and his aunt had promised fresh blueberry muffins for lunch, things were looking pretty good. Then he came back to the house after spending the morning mucking out the stalls in the barn only to find his pastor (a guy he'd never really liked, he just gave him the creeps for more reason than one) in the house yelling at his aunt because she was letting her nephew openly live as a "fag". Hiro honestly had no idea what that meant, and he tried to think of anything he could have done recently to piss the guy off (and no, he wasn't above a practical joke or two to mess with the preacher-hey, he deserved it with a lot of the things he'd done.) Only it turned out that the pastor wasn't talking about him-he was talking about Tadashi. Hiro had honestly been shocked-his brother was the most devout Christian he knew and he never so much as stepped a toe out of line, how the hell had he managed to get on the preacher's bad side? As he gathered when he was dragged into the living room and pretty much given the gestapo treatment about what he knew about his brother's relationship with Fred, the farmhand they'd hired on for the summer, apparently the guy thought that Tadashi liked guys-like, like liked them, with kissing and other stuff. Hiro was kind of momentarily shocked by that-hell, he didn't even know that was an option!-but as he thought back on how Fred and his brother acted together, it made sense. They were always acting like they were flirting with each other, even if he hadn't realized that they were doing it until now. He tried to decide if it bothered him at all, but honestly, he liked Fred, a lot better than that annoying Meg girl who was always trying to hit on his brother, so in the end he came to the conclusion that he was okay with it and he'd even tell Tadashi so-y'know, after making him squirm for not telling him about it earlier. And once he knew for sure that Tadashi and Fred were actually interested in each other and the pastor wasn't just making this all up.
As it turned out, Fred and Tadashi were actually dating. Hiro couldn't help but feel kind of grossed out when the pastor accused Dashi of "having relations" with the other man-seriously, you were going to say that in front of a kid? Well, teenager technically, but still! He did not need to know the specifics, especially not when it came to his brother's love life-that was his own business and he did not want to hear about that! Honestly, he couldn't understand why the preacher was making such a big deal out of this-God was all about love and he didn't see why He'd be opposed to two people being in love with each other just because they were the same gender, especially when one of them was as strong of a Christian as Tadashi (he didn't know about Fred, but he suspected that the other man felt about as uncomfortable in the church as he did, although Fred hadn't even encountered some of the things he had.)
Honestly, Hiro was still hating himself for not defending his brother more-or, y'know, at all-but he'd been a little freaked out by all the screaming and the yelling and froze. Fortunately Fred and Aunt Cass had stepped up and taken care of things, which was a relief. After his aunt had been a total badass and kicked the creep out of the house, he hadn't been able to resist needling his brother a bit for keeping this a secret from him, but honestly he couldn't be too mad at him given he'd probably known that that bastard was going to do if he ever found out (not that Hiro would ever tell, but maybe his brother had thought he'd freak out too.) They'd just settled down to lunch and the younger Hamada was thinking that things were going to be fine (after all, now he could totally mess with his brother about the fact that he had a-wait, what was Fred? Tadashi's boyfriend? That sounded a little weird, but, whatever he was, he was totally going to mess with both of them as much as he could-in a totally loving way, of course.) But then out of the blue the police had shown up and, after trying to stick both Tadashi in Fred in jail, Hiro suddenly found his world upended again when his aunt declared that they were moving to SF. Sure, Hiro had always dreamed about living there someday, but he hadn't expected it to be so soon or so suddenly. It wasn't like he wanted to be a farmer for the rest of his life, but his entire life up to this point had happened on or around this farm, and he didn't know how he felt about leaving that all behind. What was even worse, though, was when Aunt Cass announced that Tadashi was going to have to leave town that same day to prevent getting locked up. It made sense, and Hiro didn't want his nii-chan behind bars, but he'd honestly gone completely numb when he heard that. Tadashi was more than just his nerdy older brother. He was his friend. His best friend. His only friend, when it came down to it. Well, maybe Fred counted as one now? No, he was mad at Fred-mad at him for apparently kissing Tadashi and doing whatever else with him that made the pastor want to kick his brother out of town and uproot his entire family. But he couldn't be mad at Fred for long-if Tadashi really liked guys, this would have happened some time or another, whether it was with Fred or some other man. His stupid brother couldn't keep his feeling under wraps no matter how hard he tried. That's one of the things Hiro both loved and hated about him. Less than two hours after that, his brother was climbing into his old pickup truck with Fred, his most valuable worldly possessions stashed in the back seat, and disappearing in a cloud of dust, driving 1,734 miles away from him, all the way to California.
It wasn't like Hiro hadn't been away from his brother before. Hell, Tadashi had been gone at college for almost an entire year, for crying out loud, only coming home for Christmas! But that still didn't make him miss him any less now that he'd left again, especially since he hadn't had any time to prepare himself-there'd barely been time to say "goodbye", his nii-chan had just been there one second and then gone the next. If anyone had asked him if he had spent the rest of the day and a good part of the next curled up on his brother's bed with a soft grey sweater of Tadashi's that had been accidentally left behind in the closet and crying, he would have outright denied it. But he would have been lying.
Eventually Hiro had switched from full-on depression to just a general numbness. He knew he should be helping with the packing and everything, but it was hard to convince himself to do anything when he felt so lifeless. News that the Hendersons were willing to buy the farm and that someone named Mr. Lee (apparently Fred's dad) had found them a place to start a cafe and also live were bright spots for him-they were signs that he was getting closer to seeing his brother again. Still, the way his aunt was talking, it might still be a month or more before they actually moved out to SF, and that was way too far away to be terribly comforting.
When his aunt had said that she needed to go into town to get some supplies and asked if he wanted to come along, he'd agreed, if nothing else but for a welcome distraction. He'd asked to go to the hardware store, partially because he wanted to see if they'd gotten in any new parts he could use, partially because it was one of his and Tadashi's favorite spots and he hoped that the familiar smell of sawdust and oil would help him feel like his brother was still there with him. Unfortunately, he'd never actually gotten to the hardware store. Outside of the post office, he'd been accosted by some older boys from school. Most of the kids in town avoided him because he was "different"-as a genius, he was a curiosity at best, a freak to most. He didn't mind being alone as long as he knew that he had his older brother who cared about him. What he did mind (despite his best efforts not to) were the guys who took it upon themselves to make his life a living hell just because he was smart and wouldn't do their dirty work for them. Tadashi had always been there to defend him when he was home, and last year while he was away the younger boy had managed to slip under the radar-maybe they got bored without someone to fight who could actually fight back (it wasn't that Hiro didn't try, he just wasn't that strong and he couldn't help being ridiculously skinny and short since he hadn't hit his growth spurt.) But today, with the news of the fact that Tadashi Hamada was a queer buzzing around the town, apparently the jerks had decided that his younger brother was a suitable target again, and they'd dragged him off into a back alleyway. They'd beat him up, calling him names, accusing him of being a "fag" as well. Hiro didn't mind them insulting him, but when they'd started in on trashing his precious niisan, they'd lit a fire in him that caused him to fight back twice as hard. Unfortunately, all that had gotten him was a bloody lip and a couple of bruised ribs. For one terrifying moment, the biggest of the group had pinned him down, threatening to do things to him that would "cure" him of ever wanting to be with another man. But fortunately one of his lunkhead cronies had reminded him that if he did that then he'd be kicked out of town too, and so the bastard had let Hiro go, saying that he wasn't worth it. Poor Hiro had been left, shivering and crying, in the alleyway, scared to try to move because it hurt so much but too afraid not to because those guys might change their minds and come back to finish the job. He'd limped along main street back to his aunt's truck, hoping that he'd be safe there. Not one person stopped to help him. No one asked if he was alright or even seemed worried by the fact that he looked like he'd just been beaten to a pulp, which he had. It turned his stomach and made something inside of his heart shrivel up and turn into a cold, black mass. All of this, just because his brother was in love with another man. All of this because these religious pricks somehow thought that they were doing "the right thing", as if they believed that if they hurt them enough somehow they'd convince them that they were wrong? Well fuck them. Fuck this entire town and their stupid religion! If the "God" they claimed was so good wanted the people who worshipped him to hurt innocent people like Tadashi just because they loved someone-something they couldn't even choose-then he was done with all of it. His world had become a significantly darker place, and his already shaky faith in humankind had been shattered. The only people he could trust were his aunt, possibly Fred, and his beloved nii-chan, and the rest of the world could go to hell.
When he'd finally stumbled his way back to the pickup, Aunt Cass was there, looking worried. She looked even more worried-panicked, almost-when she saw the condition that he was in, but he'd refused to say anything, just climbing up into the passenger side and pulling the hood of his hoodie (a hand-me-down of Tadashi's) up over his face, determined to block everything out. When he'd gotten home, he'd quietly helped carry in the groceries because he knew it was expected of him before retreating to his and Tadashi's room-the one place where he knew that he'd be safe. A while later, he could hear Aunt Cass talking on the phone. From the gist of what she was saying, it sounded like she was talking to Tadashi. At first he wanted to go down there, to hear his niisan's voice, but he just didn't have the energy or the will to move. From what he could hear, it sounded like Tadashi was having a good time with Fred in SF. He couldn't hold that against him. His brother deserved to be happy, even if he was completely miserable. Still, there was only so much cheerfulness he could take before he finally had to block it out, curling up with his brother's sweater again, inhaling the scent in deeply like it was a drug that would numb the pain and even more so wishing that he was dead to the world.
About half an hour later, he heard more voices downstairs. At first fear seized in his chest-what if it was someone else who had come to hurt his family? Before he can panic too much, though, he identified the speakers as Mr. and Mrs. Henderson. Well, he was at least pretty sure he could trust them. He was just going back to silently trying to wish away the rest of the world when he hears the sound of his door opening.
"Aunt Cass, I'm not really up to seeing anyone," he mumbles, knowing who it probably was and thinking that she wanted him to come down and try to be social.
"Sweetie, I know," his aunt answers, sitting down next to him and laying a hand on his shoulder. "And I'm really sorry to do this, but… I need you to get up."
"Is it an emergency?" he asks, his voice mumbled by the sweater fabric and determined not to move unless it was.
"Of sorts," Aunt Cass replies, her voice strained. "We need to get you packed."
"Packed?" This response was so unexpected that he actually looks up at her.
"I-I talked to your brother and Fred, and we all agreed," Aunt Cass says quietly, as if this was taking great effort for her. "It's not safe for you here anymore-not after today. So… We're sending you out to stay with them in SF." Seeing his shocked expression, she adds, "I'll be out there as soon as I can! And please don't think I'm abandoning you or trying to send you away. I- I just couldn't live with myself if I let you stay here and something happened to you."
Hiro knew that he probably should have been feeling bad about leaving his aunt here alone to deal with everything, especially with how sad she looked. But, his heart filled with hope at the idea of seeing his brother again, the only thing that comes out of his mouth is, "How soon do I leave?"
That's how he found himself at the airport three hours later, hugging his aunt goodbye just outside the doors. He was sad to be leaving her, but the truth was that he didn't know what would have happened if he'd been forced to stay in that town any longer. Packing had been a bit arduous-he hadn't been allowed to bring any of his tools or inventing stuff because those things "weren't allowed" on the plane. He was a bit worried about leaving them to be packed by his aunt and the strangers who were apparently going to help with the move, but there wasn't much he could do about it, and besides, being back with Tadashi totally overshadowed that. What he had done was shove in all of his inventing journals wherever he could fit them around the clothes in his duffel bag. These were without a doubt his most treasured possessions-every birthday since he'd been old enough to hold a pencil, Tadashi had given him a journal to fill up with his ideas and plans for inventions, and every year he strove to fill it completely up with new ideas, to prove both to himself and his brother that he could do it. He was well on his way to finishing with this year's one, and he'd packed it on top of everything else so that he could pull it out on the plane if he got any ideas.
"Love you, Aunt Cass," he tells his aunt as she finally lets him go. "I'll see you soon, okay?"
"Okay," Aunt Cass agrees,looking like she was holding back tears, before pulling him into one more quick embrace. "Last hug," she whispers.
"Last hug," Hiro agrees, hugging her back before heading through the doors and into the airport. He never even looked back.
Even though he'd never flown before, Hiro knew some things from listening to Tadashi, plus he'd googled everything he could about first-time flying after he'd finished packing, so he was somewhat prepared for what everything that happened next. He had one duffle bag and a small backpack on him, so with one carry-on allowed and one "personal item", he didn't have to deal with checking any baggage. Going through security was a rather stressful process-he'd heard conflicting stories about what exactly you were supposed to do, and as the people at the gates barked instructions at him he couldn't help but feel both slightly scared and a little bit annoyed. It wasn't like he was trying to do anything wrong, he just didn't know what he was supposed to do, geeze!
He thought he was home free once he was into the main part of the airport, but it turned out that his troubles weren't over yet by a long shot. There were a million people swarming past like ants in a colony, and everyone seemed to know where they were going but him. He was just staring up at the signs that were supposed to tell him where he was supposed to go but ended up only serving to confuse him even more with trepidation when suddenly a friendly looking elderly gentleman with a name tag that read "Wayne Kresky", driving what looked like a golf cart, pulls to a stop next to him.
"Are you alright, young man?" he asks in a slightly gravelly voice.
For a moment Hiro wanted to say that he was fine, that he didn't need any help (you couldn't blame him for being a bit wary of other people, especially strangers, with everything he'd been through in the past few days) but he realizes that he was completely out of his depth and so he finally relents and admits that he's lost.
"Let me see your boarding pass," the man says, reaching out a hand, and while Hiro was initially reluctant to let it go, he can only hope that since this guy appeared to work for the airport that it was okay and so he holds it out to him.
"Ah, gate 223B," the elderly gentleman says after briefly scanning it. "That's right on my way! Care for a ride?"
"I… Um…" Hiro again considered saying "no", but the man's sparkling blue eyes were friendly and open, somehow making him feel like he could trust him, and so after a moment of internal wrestling, he answers, "Y-yeah, thanks."
"Climb aboard, then!" Wayne tells him, gesturing to the seat next to him.
Hiro does so, and a moment later they're taking off down the airport corridor at a speed the younger boy seriously had to doubt was supposed to be allowed, weaving in and around crowds of people..
"W-whoa, where did you get your license to drive this thing?" Hiro cries, hanging on for dear life.
"License?" Wayne gives him a playful smirk. "Who said anything about a license?"
Despite his fears, the older man does get the teen safely to his waiting area.
"Here you go," he says, looking proud of himself as he jerks to a stop. "Told you I'd get you here, didn't I?"
"Y-Yea," Hiro agrees, slightly shaken still but also grinning-that had probably been one of the coolest things he had ever done.
"Just take a seat over there on one of those benches and they'll call you when it's time to board, all right?" Wayne tells him with a warm smile.
"O-okay, thanks!" Hiro answers, giving him a grateful look. "And thanks for the ride!"
"My pleasure!" Wayne gives him a friendly wink before taking off down the corridor.
Hiro takes a seat at the far end of a bench, as far away from everyone else as he could manage. It wasn't like he expected them to suddenly mob him-they didn't even know him! But that still didn't mean that he necessarily wanted to be near them. He needed to conserve whatever social energy that he actually had left in his body for when he was on the plane and forced into close proximity with all these other people for a good four hours.
Not sure what to do until the plane started boarding in about thirty minutes (and he knew from what he'd read that boarding could be delayed, even up to an hour) he decides to check his phone for messages. As it turned out, he had a lot of missed ones from Tadashi, and he checks them. All were from in the last hour or so, apologizing for not contacting him sooner but saying that he'd been trying to get everything set up for his arrival. The younger boy couldn't help but smile at that. He usually laughed at his nii-chan for being such a worry wart, but it actually felt kind of nice knowing that he hadn't been forgotten and that his older brother was going to be taking care of him, just like old times. He sends back a reply, reassuring him that he was fine, that he had gotten to the right terminal safely, and that he would be boarding soon. The next reply is a bit delayed, and this time it's from Fred, saying that he'd taken Tadashi's phone away so that he'd actually get some sleep in before coming to pick Hiro up at the airport but reassuring him that he'd pass along the news and telling him that they both couldn't wait to see him when he arrived. It was slightly disappointing not to hear from his nii-chan again, but it was good knowing that Fred was forcing him to take care of himself. Beyond that, it was also kind of nice hearing the other man saying that he was going to be happy to see him as well. While he wouldn't admit this out loud, at least not yet, Hiro did kind of see Fred as an older brother and, considering he was getting him out to SF to see his actual brother? He was definitely vying for a high position on the teen's list of favorite people (and it wasn't a very long list at that.)
Eventually, after what felt like both too long and too short of a wait, someone announces that Hiro's flight is boarding and he gets up to join the queue of people that is forming. It takes a frustratingly long time to actually get to his seat, and once there he struggles to get his dufflebag up into the overhead compartment. Fortunately, a tall, muscular man comes along and helps him get it in safely. As it turns out, he's his seat mate for the flight, and as they sit down (he's nice enough to give Hiro the window seat after asking which he'd preferred) he introduces himself as Kronk. It was a funny name, but given his own was Japanese, Hiro really couldn't say anything about it. Kronk was a very friendly guy, as it turned out, and while he seemed to talk a lot, it was in a way that Hiro didn't mind listening to considering he wasn't really expected to do much more than smile and nod at the appropriate places. The man even offers him some gum for the takeoff, but the teen reassures him that he has his own (the guy might be nice, but there was still something to be said for not taking food from strangers, no matter how friendly they might be.) Takeoff wasn't really a problem for Hiro like it might be for first time flyers. He understood the mechanics of planes enough to know that he was perfectly safe. If anything, it was exhilarating and he almost wishes it wasn't so dark so he could watch properly as the ground dropped away from underneath them and they climbed up into the sky.
Soon after the flight levels out, Kronk falls asleep, as do many of the other passengers. Hiro, though, found himself much too wide awake to follow their example, and so he pulls out his notebook to start working on the designs his latest pet project. He called the little robots microbots. They could be controlled by a neurocranial transmitter fashioned in the shape of a headband to make and do literally anything that the wearer could imagine. He spends a happy hour or so sketching on them until his brain starts wandering to other ideas. After everything that had happened over the past few days, he couldn't help but feel a great sense of injustice, like someone needed to do something to right all of these wrongs in the world-to defend all of these people who were getting hurt. That thought firmly in his mind, he begins sketching out very detailed plans for a superhero suit which incorporated the microbots as its means of defense for taking out the bad guys. Even if he knew he'd probably never build it (Aunt Cass would kill him if he went vigilante), it was intensely gratifying imagining what he'd do if he did. He hadn't even realized that he'd dozed off until he woke up, hours later, to hear a voice telling him over the loudspeaker that the plane was preparing to descend and that all chairs and trays needed to be in the upright position. His head still felt slightly fuzzy from his impromptu nap, but when he looks out the windows and sees the lights of SF glowing down beneath them, he feels his heart leap slightly. Even though he'd never been there before, somehow, deep down inside his soul, he knew that this was exactly where he was meant to be.
About twenty minutes later, the plane touches down at the San Fransokyo International Airport. As before the flight, only in reverse, Kronk helps Hiro get his bag down from the overhead compartment. Seeing that the teen was a minor flying alone, the man asks if he had someone waiting for him, which the teen reassures him that he does, thanking him politely for all of his help (Aunt Cass had raised her boys with manners, even if they both were introverts.)
It's surprisingly empty out in the airport after the crush of traffic at the first one, but Hiro guesses that it's because it's 3:30 am (well, 1:30 am if you went by California time-this would take some getting used to.) Fortunately, he's able to just follow the trail of people who had exited the flight before him out to the pick-up area.
For a minute Hiro feels slightly scared, clutching his bags to him. He was in a strange city in the middle of the night, with bright lights glaring down on him that only made everything seem that much more terrifying and confusing, and he wasn't sure where exactly his brother was or if he was even there yet. What if he was in the wrong place? What if it took a while for him to find him and something bad happened to him while he was waiting all by himself?
He needn't have worried, though. About sixty seconds after exiting the door, he suddenly hears a faint voice that was growing ever louder shouting, "Otouto! Otouto!"
Approximately thirty seconds later, by the time he had figured out the general direction that it was coming from, he finds himself being scooped up and crushed into a tight, Tadashi-smelling hug.
"Hiro!" his brother cries, spinning him around in his eagerness. "You're here! Oh my gosh, I can't believe you're actually here!"
Whatever else that his brother had to say was drowned out as Hiro just hugs his brother back, listening to the steady beating of his heart in his chest. Home. He was finally back with his niisan, and he was home again.