Chapter Eight: Curiouser and Curiouser

Hiro ran down the stairs to the basement. He couldn't be late. He just couldn't. It was all well and fine if Tadashi took his time, but he had a fully-functioning nurse bot to take care of. Not to mention all his side projects.

Hiro ran into the garage and skid to a stop. He had long since moved Baymax's charger down there, as it made mornings go a lot smoother. However, this particular morning, Baymax was up, and conversing with a fully dressed Tadashi.

"Hey, Tadashi." Hiro said carefully. "I thought you were having breakfast upstairs."

Tadashi regarded him carefully. "I was. But I'm not now."

Clearly. Hiro couldn't help thinking. This was no good. He couldn't fly to school if Tadashi was in here. He decided to stall and hope he would leave eventually.

"So… what are you doing in here?"

Tadashi raised an eyebrow. "It's our workshop, isn't it?"

"Well, yeah." Hiro faltered. "But you didn't- don't normally come down here just to hang out." Especially if I'm not here. He added silently.

"I wanted to see how Baymax was functioning." His brother regarded him coldly.

Hiro took the chance. "Well," He said brightly. "As you can see, he's just fine. Now if you'll excuse us, we- uh- have to stop at Fred's house before we get to school. Uh… bye." He finished lamely.

/\\\\\/\\\\/\\\/\\/\

He ended up actually stopping at Fred's. He and Baymax took the bus there, then grabbed the backup suits and headed to school. Try as he might, though, Hiro couldn't get his conversation with Tadashi out of his head. He'd seemed colder, more distant. Had he done something to offend his older brother?

"Hey, Baymax? Did Tadashi seem… different to you?"

"He seemed depressed, pale skinned, and sullen. Perhaps he is suffering from Post-Traumatic-Stress-Disorder."

Hiro frowned. "Maybe…"

It didn't seem right, but he supposed anything was a possibility…

/\\\\\/\\\\/\\\/\\/\

"Baymax, I think I left my fusion wrench on the table. Would you hand it to me?"

Hiro's head was halfway in a three-fold carbonator. He was still working on getting his end-of-year project to shrink. It was no easy task, but he was determined to have it finished. With any luck, it would be bigger than his miro-bots.

He felt weight hit his outstretched palm. "Thanks."

"No problem." A voice that wasn't Baymax's responded.

Hiro pulled his head out of the carbonator. "Tadashi!" He exclaimed. "What are you doing here?"

"I came to bring you your lunch." He held out a brown paper bag. "Aunt Cass made sandwiches."

Hiro grabbed the bag eagerly. "Thanks again." He started munching. "Mmmmm! Turkey and Swiss. She knows us well."

"That she does." Tadashi pulled out his own sandwich and started eating.

"So…" Hiro started. "What was with you this morning?"

Tadashi glanced up at him, confused. "I'm not sure what you mean." He thought a moment. "I haven't sleep all that well lately. Course, I wouldn't tell that to Aunt Cass. Why?"

Hiro shrugged. "I dunno. You just seemed a little… moody."

Tadashi laughed. "Well, thanks for mentioning that. I'll try to hide any further sleep loss from you as well."

Hiro chuckled. "Thanks for the lunch."

Tadashi molded his face into a grin. "Anytime lit- bro."

They did their traditional fist bump and Tadashi started to leave. He was almost to the door when something occurred to Hiro.

"Hey, could I have that screwdriver back?"

Tadashi turned back to him, just as Melina Swartz came around the corner with her science project, the Shocker Blocker 85. It was designed to send a shock through a computer system to reboot it, but she was working on making it safe for people to actually use.

And just then, all the electricity from her project ran through his brother's body. Tadashi spasamed for a moment, then fell to the floor with a heavy thud. Hiro's mind shut down.

Vaguely he remembered yelling at Melina, shouting for Baymax, and crying for an ambulance. He cradled his older brother in his arms muttering something along the lines of "Please don't die. I can't lose you again." Over and over.

"Please…"