Takashi didn't know how long or how far he ran. All he knew when he finally stopped for a rest, panting slightly from exertion, he was hopefully far enough away that Hiro couldn't find him and turn him off.

Turn him off…

Takashi wraps his arms tightly around himself, as if trying to hold himself together when it felt like everything inside of him was crumbling apart. He wasn't really Takashi. He was a robot-a freaking robot. He should have seen the signs-the glitchy memory, the fact that he never really seemed to get hungry even though Hiro still gave him food to eat, the way that Hiro wouldn't allow anyone in to see him. He'd never even seen one of those supposed doctors that Hiro kept talking about! Maybe he'd known all along and just been wanting to believe the fantasy that Hiro had created for them-he'd probably been programmed to want to believe it. Maybe Hiro was right. Maybe he wasn't even a real person. Maybe he would be better shut off…

But no. Takashi shakes his head. He couldn't believe that. He may be a robot, but he still deserved a chance to live and be happy. The only problem was, he had no idea where to go. He couldn't go back to the school, obviously, Hiro would find him there.

Hiro… Takashi feels tears welling up in his eyes just at the thought of him. Hiro, his little brother he loved so much, who he'd spent his whole life looking out for, who had betrayed him in the worst way possible-

No. Takashi couldn't think about him right now. He needed a plan, he couldn't let himself break down now. He wanted more than anything to go home, but that's probably the first place after the school that Hiro would look for him, and besides, what would Aunt Cass say when she saw him? She'd probably have a heart attack on the spot, or worse. And once she found out the truth about him, she'd probably hate him as much as Hiro did.

He had his friends, but wasn't it possible that they'd all feel the same way?

...Wait. There was one person who just might be willing to accept all of this and actually listen to his side of the story. It wasn't like he had anywhere else he could go, and he didn't like the look of the clouds overhead-it might start raining at any moment, and he didn't really want to test how his robot body would react to water.

It took a lot of walking to finally find the place-he'd gotten himself pretty lost, and his memories of how to get there weren't exactly the clearest. But finally, he found himself in the right neighborhood, and he felt a huge sense of relief, hoping that maybe he'd finally find some help.

He was almost all the way to where he was going when suddenly the heavens decide to open up and pour down with a vengeance, instantly soaking him. Thankfully he didn't see any electrical sparks or anything of worry-Hiro must have made him waterproof, thank goodness-but he was still cold and very, very wet. Shivering, he makes it the last block to the house he was looking for, making his way up to the front door and reaching out with a shaking hand to ring the doorbell. He pauses for a moment, wondering if this was really a good idea. But he didn't see any other option and so, taking a deep breath for courage, he rings the bell.

Fred was spending a quiet Friday evening at home. Usually he'd go out with his friends after a long week at school, but Honey Lemon and Gogo were on a date, Wasabi had dinner with his family, and Hiro… Well, he had no idea what Hiro was doing except working on some sort of ultra secret project that he wasn't letting any of the others in on. Fred didn't like to pry into others personal lives when it was clear they weren't comfortable with it, so he wasn't asking too many questions, but he hoped that Hiro was okay, whatever he was working on. For a little while Hiro had acted super excited, as if the project (whatever it was) was going well, but lately he'd been sliding back down into a slump, almost as bad as he'd been after Takashi had died. The friend group had all agreed to keep an eye on Hiro for a while longer, preparing to stage an intervention if needed-they'd owed Takashi that much to keep an eye on his younger sibling-but Fred really hoped it wouldn't come to that.

Fred feels himself frowning as he rolls over on his couch, the comic book he'd been reading falling unnoticed to the side as he focuses on the picture he kept on the nightstand next to his bed. It had been taken eight months ago, right before the fire. It was a picture of all of their friends together at Takashi's aunt's restaurant. Honey Lemon had taken the picture, and she'd somehow managed to take the shot right when Takashi had been smiling at him. It was still enough to make Fred's heart flop over with a mixture of emotions.

It hadn't been a secret to anyone with half a brain that Fred had had a major crush on Takashi-the way he trailed around after him like a lost puppy really hadn't been that hard to see. But Fred's crush had been decidedly unrequited. Takashi had always been nice about it, but he'd let him know in no uncertain terms that his main focus was on his work and he didn't really have the time or interest to have a romantic relationship. Fred had done his best to respect that, but that didn't make his crush go away. And it hadn't made it any easier when he'd lost him.

Fred was just trying to pull himself together again-he couldn't keep crying about his dead friend and crush after seven months of him being gone, it was time to move on-when he suddenly hears knocking on his bedroom door.

"Master Frederick?" Fred hears the voice of his family's butler, Heathcliff, coming from the other side of the door. "You have a... visitor waiting for you in the main foyer."

A visitor? Fred perks up at that. He hadn't been expecting anyone, but if one of his friends had decided to stop by to hang out that would be the perfect distraction from his rather confusing emotions.

"Coming!" Fred calls, standing up and making his way across his bedroom to the door.

Brimming with hope that his night had been rescued, Fred heads down the hallway, trying to guess which of his friends might have stopped by. He doubted it would be Gogo or Honey since they were on a date-maybe Wasabi's dinner with his family had ended early, or Hiro had decided to take a break from his project to come play video games with him?

The last person Fred expected to see when he reaches the foyer was his dead crush standing on the mat just inside the door, dripping water and dressed in only a thin hospital gown that clung to every bump and curve of his body as a result of being soaked by the rain. Fred wasn't sure he wasn't dreaming, because this seemed exactly like something out of a weirdly specific sex fantasy.

"F-Fred?" Takashi whispers, his voice cracking and his eyes looking so scared and lost that it was enough to break Fred out of his momentary shock.

"T-Takashi?" Fred breathes, suddenly finding it very hard not to hyperventilate. Oh God. Oh God, was this actually happening. "I-Is it really you?"

He'd expected either an enthusiastic yes or to be told that this was all a dream and he was imagining things. He did not expect Takashi to answer brokenly, "I-I don't know anymore…" before breaking down sobbing.

"Hey, hey!" Fred hurries over to Takashi, not caring if this was a dream at this point, wrapping his arms around the other man and holding him close, ignoring the fact that he was getting wet from the contact. "It's okay, Kashi! Whatever's happening, it's going to be okay!"

Takashi doesn't answer for a while, just sobbing into Fred's chest, and Fred was starting to wonder if he was ever going to get an answer when Takashi finally pulls away, sniffling quietly.

"S-Sorry," Takashi apologizes, shaking his head, which accidentally only managed to spatter Fred with more droplets of water. "Oh, shit, I-I'm sorry-!"

"No, it's okay!" Fred reassures him. "I'm not worried about a tiny bit of water-I'm more freaked out by you being here right now! I mean-you're dead! Or you're supposed to be dead! I went to your freaking funeral, I saw you get buried! ...A-Are you a zombie? Or a ghost?"

"Zombie, no," Takashi answers quietly, his arms wrapping around tightly himself, and Fred noticed how violently he was shivering. "Ghost? I-I don't think so, at least not in the traditional sense?"

"All right," Fred says uncertainly, only feeling more confused. "So, if you're not a zombie or a ghost… What are you?"

"B-Before I tell you, you have to promise you won't freak out, or kick me out, or try to hurt me," Takashi says, shivering even more violently. "Please, I've already had Hiro turn on me, I-I can't lose anyone else today!"

"Okay…" Fred slowly agrees, but his guard was up. If Hiro had considered this Takashi-looking person unsafe, maybe there was something to be worried about.

"H-Hiro just told me… That I'm not the real Takashi-that I'm just a robot copy he made," the other man whispers, tears starting to fall from his eyes again.

"Wait, what?" Fred feels himself freezing. Wait. No. No way. He knew that Hiro had been talking about making a robot Takashi, but they'd all talked him out of it-he'd promised that he wouldn't for his sake and everyone else's! There was no way that he'd gone back on his promise! ...Was there?

Suddenly all of the time Hiro had been spending on his "secret project" made a lot more sense, and Fred felt a sense of dread filling his stomach. Holy shit. Hiro had done it. Hiro had made the robot. And now said robot was standing, dripping rain and very much aware that he was a robot, in Fred's house. Clearly things had gone very, very wrong.

"Please don't hate me," the robot Takashi begs, and there was something about the absolute despair and brokenness in his voice that made Fred realize what he was dealing with here. Maybe this wasn't the real Takashi, and maybe it was a robot. But this very real looking robot apparently also had very real emotions and thoughts, and it looked like he was barely holding it together. Fred wasn't quite sure why he'd chosen to come to his house, of all places, but he must have trusted him for some reason, and after what he'd just heard Hiro had done to this poor robot, he was clearly in need of a friend right now.

"Hey-I don't hate you," Fred says softly, gently reaching out to Takashi (was he supposed to call him that? Not important, he could figure that out later.) "It sounds like you've just been through a lot, so how about we go back to my room and get you dried off, and then we can try to sort through all of this together, okay?"

"O-Okay," Takashi agrees, gratefully taking his hand, and there was something in the way that he was looking at him with those soft brown eyes that made some long buried butterflies flutter to life in the pit of Fred's stomach. But no! He couldn't be thinking about his old unrequited crush right now, especially when this wasn't even his Takashi! Having a crush on a robot- He wasn't even sure how that would work, and it was probably best not to think about.

Fred makes a pit stop into his dad's room on the way back to his room-his own clothes wouldn't quite fit Tadashi, who was desperately in need of something to wear other than that soaking wet hospital gown, and he figured his dad's clothes might fit him a bit better. Once in the room, Fred directs him to the bathroom where there were plenty of clean towels, and Takashi thanks him profusely for his help before going to get dry and put on the warm clothes.

Once Fred was alone in his room, he sinks down onto his couch, his head spinning. So much had happened in such a short period of time and he wasn't quite sure what to make of all of it. His crush was back from the dead, only he wasn't really his crush, he was apparently a robot made by his crush's younger brother, and not just any robot-a thinking, feeling robot who seemed very, very real.

It had just barely managed to all start sinking in when Takashi finally returns from the bathroom.

"H-Hi," Takashi says quietly, still seeming slightly skittish, as if expecting to be put in danger or hurt at any moment. What the fuck had Hiro done to this poor robot?

"Hey," Fred answers, gesturing to the empty seat next to him on the couch, and, after a moment of hesitation, Takashi slowly sits down on it.

"So… I have a lot of questions," Fred admits.

"I don't blame you." Takashi gives him a ghost of a smile. "Although to be fair I probably have just about as many as you…"

"Do you think you could tell me what happened today-why you're here? Or,if you can, start from the beginning?" Fred asks hesitantly.

"I'll tell you everything that I know, but Hiro would probably be the best one to explain all of this," Takashi answers quietly. "I-I feel like I don't know anything anymore…"

"Well just start with what you do know," Fred gently prompts.

"Okay." Takashi nods and takes a deep breath before beginning, "I woke up-or, I thought I woke up-about a month ago. I don't have any memories-or I guess, any of the real Takashi's memories?-of anything leading up to the fire. I just know what Hiro told me. He told me today that he'd uploaded a bunch of videos into me of Takashi's life, so those are the closest things I have to memories. All I really know is that when I woke up, or turned on, or whatever I did, Hiro told me about the fire, and then he said I'd sustained trauma which is why my memory was so spotty. I-I didn't have any reason not to believe him, and he had me in a room that looked like a hospital, so how was I to know it wasn't true?"

Fred nods to show that he was listening, not wanting to interrupt Takashi's story.

"I should have realized that something was up when I never saw any real doctors and when no one but Hiro ever came to see me," Takashi whispers, tears filling up his eyes. "But Hiro just seemed so happy that I was okay, and I wanted to keep seeing him smiling so I never asked questions, y'know? After a while he started getting sad whenever he came to see me, and I didn't know why. I tried to cheer him up as best I could, but he started spending less and less time with me, and I was left alone by myself in that room waiting for him. I-I kept waiting, promising myself that things would get better… I thought maybe the doctors had told him that I was getting worse or something, and he was worried about me, and I didn't want him to worry. B-But then today…"

Takashi takes a shaky breath, tightly wrapping his arms around himself. "Hiro finally came to see me again. I was just so happy to see him I didn't even think about how long it had been since his last visit. But then… Then he started acting strange. I-I could tell something was wrong, and I didn't feel safe. I told him that I was going to go talk to the doctors for myself because I knew I had to get out of that room. He tried to keep me from leaving, but I ran out the door anyways, which is when I realized we were at SFIT. I told him to tell me the truth about what was going on, a-and that's when he told me that I… That I'm…"

"Holy fuck," Fred whispers. Takashi couldn't even finish what he was trying to say, and Fred couldn't blame him after everything that he'd been through! Hiro had built this robot, then kept it isolated in a small room and lied to it day in and day out, and then he'd-what? Decided to discard it because he'd decided that he didn't want it anymore?

"He wanted to turn me off, Fred-for good," Takashi whispers. "My own little brother. H-He just wanted me gone. So I ran. I ran, and I ran, and finally I came here because it's the only place I could think I might be safe…"

"Well you are safe here," Fred says firmly, a protective fire kindling to life in his chest. This may not be his Takashi, but he was still a person, and he'd be damned if he let anyone hurt him!

"I-I am?" Takashi whispers, a bit of hope finally appearing in his eyes.

"Hell yes." Fred reaches over to put a hand on Takashi's knee. "You are welcome to stay here as long as you need to, and I promise that I will do everything in my power to keep you safe."

"T-Thank you… So much. You have no idea how much this means to me!"

Fred did his best not to blush with the way Takashi was looking at him like he was a superhero or something. Nope, nope, nope, he was not even going to go there! Not only was this Takashi a robot, there was the whole matter of the fact that the real (or maybe the better word would be original, since this Takashi was real in his own way) Takashi hadn't at all returned his affections. He had no reason to believe that this Takashi would be any different, and he didn't want to set himself up for heartbreak by pretending otherwise.

Speaking of the whole old Takashi/new Takashi conundrum…

"Y'know, I think maybe we should think of another name for you, if you're okay with it," Fred says.

"Another name?" Takashi repeats slowly.

"Just so that it won't be so confusing when we're trying to talk about you or when we're talking about the other Takashi," Fred explains.

"Oh… I see." Takashi nods in understanding, a small smile forming on his face. "I-I think I'd like that, actually. I know now that I'm not him, even though all I've really got are his memories… I think I'd like to get to find out who I am, not to try to be a clone of him, even if that's what I was made for originally. Maybe a new name would be a good start…"

"I think it would be a great start!" Fred says enthusiastically.

"Do you have any suggestions?" Takashi asks him. "I can't really think of anything off the top of my head…"

"Well, maybe we could pick something that's close to Takashi so that it's easy to remember, but still different so that it's your own name, not his?" Fred answers.

"...Why do I get the feeling that you already have something picked out?" Takashi asks, sounding mildly amused, his eyes sparkling in a way that was not at all making Fred's heart rate speed up just a bit.

"How about Tadashi?" Fred responds, trying to avoid sounding tongue tied. "Dashi for short."

"Tadashi…" The robot carefully repeats the name, as if trying it out, before beaming at him. "I love it!"

"Tadashi it is, then!" Fred grins at him before letting out an embarrassed laugh as his stomach unexpectedly lets out a loud growl.

"Oh, shit, sorry, I-I didn't realize what time it was when I came stumbling in here!" Tadashi cries. "You haven't eaten dinner yet, have you?"

"No, I haven't, but I was just going to heat up some leftover pizza for dinner," Fred reassures him. "Did you want some- Or, wait… You probably can't eat, can you?"

"I actually can?" Tadashi shrugs. "I don't know how that works, but Hiro's been feeding me food so apparently it's fine."

"All right then, in that case you're more than welcome to share my pizza!"

"Thank you-that's really sweet of you." Tadashi smiles gratefully at him, and for a moment his fingers press against the back of Fred's hand, lingering for longer than a just-friends touch, instantly putting Fred back into minor hyperventilation mode. What had that been about? There was no way that this Takashi-no, wait, Tadashi-could have that kind of feelings for him… Was there?

Fred was just trying to figure out how to breathe properly again when his phone starts ringing. Desperate for a distraction, he dives for the phone, quickly picking it up, only to swallow hard when he saw the name on the caller ID.

"What is it?" Tadashi asks with a small frown, noticing the obvious change in Fred's mood. "Is everything okay?"

His words not willing to form properly, Fred holds up the phone so Tadashi could see.

"Shit," Tadashi whispers, eyes going wide with fear. "I-It's Hiro..."