"All right-here we go," Hiro breathes, wiping sweat off of his forehead. Six months. It had been six months since his older brother, Takashi, had died in that awful fire on the night Hiro had been admitted to the San Fransokyo School of Technology. The night had started out so amazingly. Hiro hardly ever saw Takashi once he started school at SFIT. His older brother was always working so hard to live up to their parents' legacy as a robotics prodigy, which was part of the reason Hiro had worked so hard to get into the school in the first place: so that he could finally spend more time with the older brother he idolized so much. Takashi had even taken time out of his busy schedule to come to the Incoming Student Expo and cheer Hiro on alongside his university friends. Everything had been going so great, and Hiro had just received his letter accepting him into the university, when a freak fire had started, caused by an electrical shortage somewhere in the building. Everyone had gotten out safely-everyone, that is, except Takashi.
Somehow Hiro had managed to get through the next six months as in a haze: with encouragement from his aunt and Takashi's friends, he'd started up classes at SFIT, but his heart wasn't really in it. How was he supposed to have passion for any of this when the only reason he'd wanted to go to this supid school in the first place was to finally get to spend time with his estranged older brother?
But his classes had actually turned out to be useful. In his intro to robotics class, the professor had given a lecture on androids and artificial intelligence, which had given Hiro the idea: who's to say that he couldn't bring Takashi back? He knew that he couldn't physically bring Takashi back. But if he made a robot that looked like Takashi, sounded like Takashi, and had Takashi's memories, along with a healthy helping of AI to give him intelligence and even a range of human emotion, couldn't he practically bring Takashi back to life, at least on some level?
Unfortunately, no one else seemed to think it was a good idea. Aunt Cass flat out told him that it wasn't a healthy way to deal with his loss, and all of Takashi's old friends had expressed their own concerns as well. But Hiro didn't need their permission. If they couldn't understand his vision, fine. He'd bring Takashi back, and it would be their own faults if they didn't get to reap the rewards of his hard work.
It took the better part of five months to get everything just right. Hiro spent hours carefully designing and building the robot body, and uploading hours upon hours of old family videos and recordings of Takashi into the robot's memory banks to give the robot as many of Takashi's memories as possible. But tonight, his hard work had finally paid off. He was finally finished, and he was about to get his older brother back. All he had to do was turn him on.
Hiro nervously scans the diagnostic reports on his computer one last time. He'd run all of the tests a million times to make sure that there was nothing wrong, but he couldn't leave any margin for error. This robotic body had to be perfect. There was no way that this Takashi could know that he was a robot. Hiro wanted him to be as real as possible, and he hoped that, if Takashi could believe that he was real, then maybe eventually everyone else, including himself, would believe it too.
"All right," Hiro says after one last check of the reports. "Okay. This is it. I can do this. I can do this." Taking a deep breath for courage, he reaches out and gently presses the button on the back of Takashi's neck to turn him on.
For one horrible moment, nothing happened, and Hiro feared the worst, that he'd failed and all of his hard work had been for naught. But then slowly, slowly, Takashi's eyes blink open, a slightly dazed look on his face but seeming to grow more alert by the moment.
"T-Takashi?" Hiro stammers out, hardly able to believe that this was true.
"Hiro?" Takashi answers, his eyes finally focusing on Hiro, and Hiro felt his heart leaping for joy. Takashi recognized him! This was real, this was actually happening! He had Takashi back! Unable to contain himself, Hiro races forward, wrapping his arms tightly around his older brother-with all of his hard work, Takashi felt completely real, even smelled vaguely of Takashi's usual aftershave. He was perfect. Hiro had made sure that he was perfect.
"H-Hiro, what's going on?" Takashi asks, after a surprised moment hugging Hiro back, and Hiro gratefully sinks into the hug, something he'd so rarely gotten to experience with Takashi in the last few years.
"Takashi, t-there was an accident," Hiro answers slowly, knowing that he had to play this right. "You were hurt pretty badly, but you're okay now!"
"A-An accident?" Takashi slowly repeats, his eyes going wide. "I-I don't remember…"
"The doctors said you hit your head pretty hard-your memories could be damaged," Hiro tells him, trying to sound innocent but worried. Hopefully this would help make up for the blank spots in between the video memories that he'd created for Takashi.
"O-Oh…" Takashi nods his head, taking in his words. "I-I guess that would explain things… Maybe that's why my body feels so weird too…"
"Are you in pain?" Hiro asks worriedly.
"Not in pain," Takashi answers. "Everything just feels… Different, somehow?"
"You also went through a lot of surgeries, so that probably doesn't help matters," Hiro answers. "But the important thing is that you're here, and you're okay, and that's all that really matters, right?"
"Right," Takashi agrees with a warm smile before suddenly pulling Hiro into a hug. "I'm so, so sorry I worried you, Hiro…"
Hiro felt a spark of surprise at that. Wait, was Takashi hugging him? Of his own free will? Takashi hadn't ever been one for physical affection, and he certainly never instigated it! But this was a good thing, right? He'd always wanted to be closer to Takashi like this, so he'd just enjoy this.
"It's okay," Hiro says softly, hugging him back. "I've got you back now, and that's all that I care about."
"Are we in the hospital right now?" Takashi asks when he lets him go, taking in their surroundings.
Hiro had set up this secret robotics lab to build Takashi in what had used to be a nursing facility on the SFIT campus but that had been abandoned when a new one was built. He'd had total privacy here, plus it did give them the illusion of being in a hospital, which would work for Hiro's cover story, at least until he could find a way to bring the others around to this.
"We are," Hiro confirms. "You were in ICU for a while, and you were finally moved to your own room. But while you're recovering you're not really allowed to have visitors-only me because I'm the closest family to you."
"No visitors? But the others must be worried about me-" Takashi says worriedly.
"Only me for now," Hiro repeats firmly. "But I promise, hopefully soon the others can come for a visit. And until then, we can spend time together, right? Just you and me?"
"Right," Takashi agrees, smiling at that. "I won't say no to more time with my otouto."
"I'm glad you think so." Hiro was thrilled at the idea of his older brother actually wanting to spend time with him.
"So, what do you want to do?" Takashi asks with a warm smile.
"W-What do I want to do?" Hiro was used to Takashi always taking charge-he never asked him what he wanted.
"Sure-you deserve to get to say what you want to do," Takashi answers with a shrug.
Well this was… Unexpected. And definitely not like Takashi. But it was nice being asked what he wanted to do for once so Hiro finally answers, "Maybe watch a movie?"
"I'd like that." Takashi grins at him. "Hamada bros movie night, yeah?"
"Yeah!" Hiro grins back. They hadn't had a movie night in years.
"Here!" Hiro hurries over to his backpack and pulls out a laptop. "We can watch something on here!"
"Sounds good!" Takashi agrees before looking at him in confusion when he takes a seat in a chair next to the hospital bed. "Um, what are you doing down there?"
"...Sitting?" Hiro answers, equally confused.
"It'll be hard for us to both see the movie if you're down there and I'm up here-why don't you come up on the bed with me? There's plenty of room!" Takashi tells him.
Hiro stares up at him in shock. No way. There was no way that Takashi was inviting him to sit on the bed with him. Takashi had a lot of rules about personal space, he didn't even like Hiro standing too close to him at times!
"Did I say something wrong?" Takashi asks, his smile faltering.
"N-No, of course not!" Hiro shakes his head. Okay, so Takashi being so friendly and affectionate was… weird, to put it mildly. But he couldn't really complain, right? This is what he'd wanted-a brother who actually wanted to spend time with him and care about him! So, trying to push his nagging concerns out of his head, Hiro climbs up onto the bed next to Takashi, doing his best to ignore it when Takashi wraps an arm around his shoulders.
"So, what are we watching?" Takashi asks curiously.
"I dunno. Did you want to watch one of those robotics lectures that you like?" Hiro asks, knowing that's just about all Takashi liked to watch these days.
"I mean… We could if you wanted to?" Takashi says slowly. "But I was thinking maybe something more fun since we're doing a movie night?"
"...Okay…? Like what?"
"I dunno. Disney? Star Wars? Lord of the Rings?"
Wait, what? Takashi hadn't wanted to watch any of those movies with him since he was a kid! ...Well, maybe that was what was going on. Maybe since Takashi was still sorting through all of his memories, the memories from when they were still kids might be fairly fresh still. Yeah, that was probably it, Hiro tells himself. And for now, why not enjoy this?
"Um, maybe Star Wars?" Hiro says tentatively.
"Star Wars it is, then!" Takashi agrees cheerfully.
"All right." Hiro gives him a slightly strained smile as he pulls up the movies on his laptop. It was okay. It was only the first day. Takashi was clearly taking some time to readjust, but it was going to be okay. Takashi would start acting like Takashi again soon, and once he had he could bring him back into the world, convince the others that this was the real Takashi, and finally get his old life back. There was no way that this could go wrong.
Okay. So things were definitely going wildly wrong. It had been a month since Hiro had activated Takashi, and things weren't getting any better. If anything, things were only getting worse. Hiro had expected Takashi to start acting more like the older brother he knew with time, but if anything he was acting less and less like himself. He was far too nice and affectionate for Takashi, and while that was something Hiro had secretly always wanted, there was no way that he would ever be able to get anyone to believe that this was the real Takashi! Worse, every time that Takashi would hug him or smile at him and tell him that he loved him, Hiro felt it like an arrow in his chest that none of his was real-that this wasn't his brother, that none of what this robot was saying was real or meant anything. Because that's all he was. A robot. Hiro never, ever should have built him, this was easily the stupidest thing he'd ever done.
At this point, there was only one thing he could do. To save himself and the poor robot, who was growing more confused and depressed by the day at constantly being kept inside his tiny room, any more pain, he needed to shut the robot down and take him apart. That's all there was to it. As much as it killed him, feeling like he was going to lose Takashi all over again, he couldn't keep living this lie. It hurt too much.
"Hiro!"
When Hiro pushes open the door to the hospital room, Takashi was, as always, waiting for him, looking up from the book that he'd been reading that Hiro had brought for him to help him pass the time while he was at classes-apparently he'd gotten out of bed and moved to the chair closer to the frosted window to the outside. It didn't offer a view of the outside world, but it did provide sunlight. Probably the last sunlight that Takashi would ever see.
"H-Hey bro," Hiro says a bit shakily, closing the door behind him.
"Hiro, have you heard anything from the doctors?" Takashi asks, his voice full of hope, but also a bit of worry. "I-I swear I'm feeling a lot better, can't you talk them into at least letting me have visitors?"
Hiro just shakes his head, afraid to speak at this point, not sure he'd be able to get any words out without breaking down crying.
"Hiro, please, I don't want to complain but I'm so tired of being cooped up in here!" Takashi says pleadingly, putting his book down. "I-I miss Aunt Cass and our friends! I just want to go home!"
"I-I know, Kashi," Hiro says softly. "A-And I'm really, really sorry for everything I've put you through. But I promise, this will all be over soon."
"What are you talking about?" Takashi asks, his forehead wrinkling with a frown. "What are you sorry for? You haven't done anything wrong!"
"I-I did," Hiro whispers, wrapping his arms around Takash as if in a hug, but preparing to reach up and press the button on the back of his neck that would shut him down and give him the peace he deserved. "But I'm finally going to make this right."
"Hiro, what are you talking about? You're scaring me," Takashi says, pushing Hiro away and looking up at him with wide eyes.
"Please, don't make this harder for me than it already is," Hiro begs, tears starting to leak out of his eyes as he again reaches for the button.
"I-I don't know what's going on, but I don't like this!" Takashi starts moving towards the door. "Hiro, I'm sorry, but I can't stay in here any longer! I-I'm going to go find one of the doctors and ask what's going on for myself!"
"Takashi, no, you can't go out there!" Hiro cries, but it was too late-he'd forgotten to lock the door this time, and before he could stop him, Takashi was already out the door, running down the hallway.
"Wait!" Hiro chases after him, heart pounding in his chest. No, no, no, this couldn't be happening! He couldn't let anyone see the robot, how could he explain this to them?
Takashi bursts through the doors to the outside just before Hiro, coming to a sudden halt as he sees his surroundings.
"A-Are we at school?" Takashi whispers, his whole body visibly trembling.
"Please, you need to come back inside!" Hiro says urgently, tugging on Takashi's arm, but Takashi yanks it away.
"Hiro, why are we at school? I-I thought you said we were in the hospital!"
"Takashi, I-I'm sorry, I promise I never meant for any of this to happen-"
"Hiro Takachicho Hamada, you tell right now what the hell is going on!" Takashi cries, his eyes flashing and looking angrier than Hiro had ever seen him look.
"Y-You're not real," Hiro finally whispers, the truth finally coming out.
"Not real?" Takashi repeats, fear making its way into his voice. "What do you mean not real?"
"You're not the real Takashi-you're a robot I made!" Tears start streaming down Hiro's face. "Takashi died seven months ago! I-I was trying to bring him back, but it was the stupidest mistake I ever made!"
"N-No." Takashi shakes his head, a frozen look on his face as he looks down at his hands. "Hiro, that's not possible. I-I'm- There's no way that I'm a robot!"
"Didn't you wonder why I couldn't let anyone else see you? Why you have so many blank spots in your memory?" Hiro cries.
"You said that was because I hit my head and had trauma!"
"No! It's because all of your memories are just videos I used of Takashi's life! I-I wanted him back so badly, but you're not like him, and I never should have tried to replace him!" Hiro sobs out, not caring who saw or heard him at this point. "But I can make this right! I-I can shut you off, and you won't have to hurt anymore!"
"...No." Takashi takes a step backwards.
"W-What do you mean no?"
"No way." Takashi takes another step back. "You're not turning me off. I-I don't care if I really am a- a robot, like you said. You can't make this decision for me! You may have made me, but you can't just choose for me whether I live or turn off! This is my life now, and you can't just take it from me!"
"Y-You don't know what you're talking about-!"
But Takashi wasn't willing to listen anymore. He knew he couldn't stay here. He had no idea what was going on at this point-his entire world had been flipped on its head-but he knew that if he stayed here something horrible would happen to him, and he'd never even get a chance to work any of this out. So, with no set destination in mind, he starts running, faster than he'd ever run before, trying to ignore the tears streaking down his cheeks at his brother's (who he'd thought was his brother, anyways) betrayal. He didn't know where he would end up, but anywhere was better than here.