Alive!Tadashi AU

Lily was rushing towards the Lucky Cat Cafe. Earlier that afternoon, she had received a call of distress from Baymax telling her something was wrong with Hiro and revealing to her the true identity of the Yokai. To say she was shocked was an understatement.

She was with Tadashi during his physical therapy exam when she got the call. "Something wrong?" he asked, looking up at her as he sat on the bed with the physical therapist stretching and flexing his leg. He had just recently regained feeling in it and everyone wanted to make sure there weren't any other complications backtracking his recovery. "N-no. It's fine. Everything's fine." Lily quickly smiled, her head screaming to rush out and get to Hiro.

She hadn't spoken to the boy in a while, not since their big argument a few weeks back. But if Hiro was in trouble, Lily thought, it was her job to make sure he was alright. For Tadashi's sake.

"I'm just going to step out for a while." Lily walked over to Tadashi, giving him a soft peck on the lips and a few words of thanks to the specialist tending to him. "I'll be back before you know it." She said, stepping out the door. "Alright." Tadashi called as the door closed. "Take care."

As soon as she was a good few feet away from Tadashi's private room, she sprinted towards the hospital exit, quickly riding the tram to the cafe's district.

Hearing Hiro's scream as she got closer to the Hamadas' garage, she entered the doorway, just in time to hear the boy's sad wail. "Tadashi isn't the same anymore, Baymax!" Hiro yelled, pounding on the robot's soft exterior. "He's missing a leg, he can't write properly, heck he can barely sit up by himself with his burns and it's ALL. BEACAUSE. OF HIM!"

Lily heard Hiro end with a sob, making her heart ache and tears well up. "Oh, Hiro." Lily whispered, catching the boy and the robot's attention. "Lily." Hiro stood, wiping his nose "What are you doing here?" The youth refused to look at her as his hands were clenched in fists, head looking down on the ground with an angry glare.

"Baymax contacted me." Lily said softly, slowly approaching the pair. "Hiro, I know I'm not the first person you want to see right now but I-" she stopped standing close to the boy. Hiro hunched, not appearing to want to listen to her words. Lily sighed. She was tired. So so tired. What the boy said was true, yet again. If it wasn't for that infernal man, none of this would have happened. She wouldn't have to hide her tears, pretend so much, act like such a strong achor everyone could rely on where in truth she wasn't. She was petrified, angry, vengeful and just goddamn tired of putting up such a strong front that just physically hurt her. So many times, so many times she thought of just breaking down and locking herself in the solitude of her room back at home. But her heart tugged at her. To be there for the person she loved. And she was glad she had gotten this far, but sometimes she just...

"To be honest, I don't really know what to say to you right now." Lily scoffed, surrendering and leaning against the table behind Hiro with her head in her hands. "Let's face it, I'm not Tadashi. No matter how hard I try, I'll never be as strong as you or him." Lily mumbled, a few tears escaping her eyes. "What happened was shit." Lily laughed bitterly at her words, thinking about how ridiculous she must seem to her boyfriend's brother and their creation. "And I know because I was one of the medics that hauled your brother's ass out of there."

Lily sniffed, wiping her eyes with the sleeves of her lab coat. "Then there was that smell, that horrible burning smell." She shivered, remembering the feeling of being overwhelmed by the sight of him when they pulled him out of the debris. "It was so hard for me to look at you in the eye that night, Hiro. When you asked me if he would be fine." She looked at the boy then, with tears in her eyes, looking vulnerable and scared, so different from what he saw that night of the accident. "I said he would be but the truth is he's not. It'll be years until he gets back to normal, if he ever does at all, and that scares me!" She almost screamed, gripping the tables ledge, knuckles whitening. "It was so hard, whenever any of you would ask me if he was okay." Lily then whispered. "Everyday he'd hate himself. For not being able to feed himself, bathe himself, finish the parts you gave him to assemble, everything!" She sobbed. "And I have to see all of that, to see him suffer like that and to not be able to do anything about it. It scares me." Lily finally breathed, looking at Hiro in the eye this time as the boy faced her, tears streaming down his plump cheeks.

"So many times, so many times did I want to give up on myself and just walk away." Lily sobbed, walking over to Hiro and embracing him gently.

"Why didn't you?" Hiro murmured against the cloth of her blouse. "Why didn't you walk away?" he repeated.

Lily chuckled lightly, holding him against her "I think it's pretty obvious why." Lily mumbled, smiling to herself a little as she looked up at Baymax who stood, quietly observing them. "Because I fell in love. With not just anyone, mind you, but with your brother. I think it's more than enough reason for me to not give up, don't you think?"

Shoulders shaking, Hiro sobbed, now clutching the back of her lab coat as hard as he could. "I'm sorry, Lily!" The boy's words muffled as she cried on Lily's bosom. "I'm sorry I yelled at you!" Lily continued to let Hiro lean on her as he cried, her tears coming down as freely as his as they held each other. "I'm sorry too, kiddo. For having to have to go through all of this."

After a while, either had calmed down and were now standing across each other chuckling at the snot that dripped down their nose and the tear stains that marred their cheeks. "That was some heart-to-heart, huh?" At that, Lily laughed at the boy. "You bet it was." Ruffling Hiro's tousled hair, she looked up at Baymax. "Thank you for contacting me, Baymax." Lily smiled at the robot as he blankly looked at her. "Of course. It was a necessary treatment to better my patient's emotional state." Both laughed at the robot's reply with Hiro lightly patting Baymax's large belly. "Good on you, buddy."

Lily chuckled, giving Baymax a hug of her own before telling Hiro she had to go back to the hospital. "I'll visit later today." Hiro told her, smiling at his brother's girlfriend. Lily smirked back at him, not helping another pat in the head, "Hey, I think it's about time you tell your brother what you've been up to lately." she said, smile widening at Hiro's whine. "Hey, Tadashi deserves to know what you've been doing with his robotics project." Lily chuckled, pinching his nose.

"Alright, alright." Hiro grumbled, swatting her hand away. "I'll tell him when I see him."

"Good." Lily smiled. "And Hiro."

"Yeah?"

Lily paused, debating if she should continue talking or not. She decided the former. "If it weren't for Callaghan, your brother and I wouldn't have met. So..."

Hiro chuckled, giving her a reassuring smile. "Don't worry, I get it. I'll do what's right, Lily."

She smiled. "I'm sure you will." Calling over her shoulder as she exited she said, "Don't forget to visit later! Keep Hiro safe, Baymax!"

Hearing a "Most certainly." and "You better not be doing weird stuff with my brother again when we get there!" from Baymax and Hiro respectively, Lily left the garage with a lighter heart that day than she had ever felt since the accident.

"Hey Lily." Gogo greeted her as they bumped into each other by the Hamada household entrance. "Guys! What are you doing here? What... happened?" Her four friends were in full gear as they were walking on their way into the house. "Fought a mad man that tried to kill us. Turned out to be the old prof. Baymax went crazy, then we had to stop him from killing the old prof. Best friend's brother leaves us in an abandoned, possibly toxic, island and we got to ride the family chopper when Heathcliff found us. The usual."

"Oh my god, are you hurt?"

"Nah, just some bumps and bruises. We're fine."

After giving them a once-over, Lily sighed. "Well you all look alright." Running a hand through her hair, she gave them a tired smile. "Call me if you need me. And Hiro's in the garage. I think you guys should talk to him."

"Thanks, Lils."

Lily left the group to their own devices after that as she made her way back to the hospital.

"Hey you're back." Tadashi grinned at her as she entered the room. "Yup. How'd the exam go?" Lily smiled at him, taking a seat on her chair as she held his hand. "It went great. They came back with the results earlier and said that my recovery was going smoothly. I'm scheduled for a stricter regimen now that I'm getting better. Isn't that great, Lils?"

Lily beamed at him, not helping a giddy squeal as she jumped and awkwardly reached over the bedside bars to wrap her arms around his neck as gently as she could and give him a long hard kiss. "It is! Oh, that's wonderful, Tadashi!" Lily grinned as she hopped in place, Tadashi doing his best to hug her back as they both nuzzled. "I know it'll take time and I know things still won't be easy but this is a start, yeah? " Lily smiled, not helping another round of soft kisses on his face as they both grinned. "Yeah. It's a start."

Inspired by TenebrisSagittarius' prompt on seeing Tadashi's progress in Alive!Tadashi AU and this will eventually help me build up to the do-da-do chapter so yeaaaaa...