"Hello I am Baymax, your personal health asi-asi-asi-rebooting..." As Baymax shut off Hiro looked expectantly for him to short circuit like he did many other times he attempted rebuilding him and sighed. Rebuilding him would be tough and wasn't easy but he was almost there. It wasn't a project he had ever thought of trying but since Hiro had figured that Tadashi would have plans for how to rebuild Baymax, he did a little snooping. In the end he wasn't wrong. When he found the plans for him a lump formed in his throat. In front of him sat a dusty notebook from under an unmoved pile in Tadashi's old lab. Opening it a drawing of a familiar pudgy robot stared back. If the reason his eyes began to glisten was tears or dust allergies he wouldn't tell. Carefully he wiped at his eyes with the edge of his sleeve. He needed to rebuild Baymax not because he'd lost him but because he'd been a way that Tadashi had lived on in spirit. It was as if who Baymax was had filled in the hole from the loss of someone so dear.
Pushing the old memory of Tadashi's plans aside, Hiro decided it would be a good idea to take a break, seeing as he had been working all afternoon. Doing so he headed off to the campus coffee shop. It was a place he'd heard Tadashi had visited often from what Honey lemon had said. She'd worked there for a bit as a side job while in her junior year of college. At least from his recollection that's how he figured the two had met. After that…well Tadashi had found everyone else in the gang through her. Walking past the main quad he headed into the cramped shop just below the physics building. A few students sat alone at tables working in notebooks or typing at laptops with various drinks and such nearby.
Heading to the front to order he grew nervous with the options. The menu was chock full of things from complex lattes to icy cold blended drinks with various flavored syrups and espresso shots. He paused, noticing a selection of teas. A certain someone still lingered in the hollows of his mind. "You gonna order?" The curt words of the barista snapped him out of his perusing. "Oh s-sorry! I'll take two green teas…to go." Green tea was Tadashi's favorite. After waiting by the other end of the counter he finally took the cups, fixing up one with a bit of honey from the array of sweeteners set out.
Grabbing both cups, Hiro began to cautiously sip the scalding beverage from the one cup he fixed with honey. The familiar grassy yet floral taste of the tea flooded his mouth like the thoughts flooding his mind. There were old memories he clung to of late nights where he couldn't sleep and the smell of green tea would waft through Tadashi's side of the room. Those were the times where some robotics project or professor's assignment would have Tadashi up all night at his desk kept awake only by the caffeine of strong green tea. He was odd like that. Never one to really enjoy coffee. Hiro remembered the smell. For a while after he was gone he couldn't even open the kitchen cabinet without growing weak at the sight of the box of green tea teabags. Even still the memories stung, remembering long gone days of his brother studying late into the night perfuming their room with that familiar grassy, herbal scent.
As he walked he took in the sight of the cherry blossoms in bloom. Trees lined the avenues that led off campus as he walked through the downtown areas of Sanfransokiyo. Hiro remembered when he was younger he would play in the park with Tadashi and try and catch cherry blossoms to make wishes on. It was all silly childish stuff but that didn't mean the memories were unimportant. They still held deep sentimental power. Hiro could still see every curve and crease in the shape of Tadashi's face. He remembered how he would comfort him, encourage him, and playfully bicker with him on small unimportant stuff. A lump formed in his throat. It was both a blessing and a curse to hold on to these little things that made a collage of what once was his brother. Tea, cherry blossoms, Baymax. But in other ways they made him feel as though his brother never left. Tadashi was always there in the things he had around him.
Turning down a final street, he headed into the Sanfransokyo graveyard. It was the first time he'd come here after finally coming to terms with his passing. For being a place for gloomy things like death it was oddly peaceful as trees lined the pathways and green grass carpeted the graves. He walked over to a grave with a tombstone marked in English and Japanese writing holding a familiar name, Tadashi Hamada. Kneeling next to the grave he noticed how neglected it was and discarded many wilted bouquets of flowers into a trash can. After doing so he sat back down in front of the grave on the grass and set the cup of green tea without honey down in front of the grave. He still remembered how Tadashi liked his tea, scalding hot and no sweeteners.
Hiro stared into the wispy curling steam of the tea in front of the grave for a bit before he spoke. "Did you miss me Tadashi? I felt like I needed to chat." It felt silly to say anything, but also somehow right. " It's a beautiful day. Sun's shining, perfect temperature, cherry blossoms are in bloom." Hiro gave a weak smile and chuckled. "Remember how we would do that game where we would try to catch the falling blossoms and wish on them when we were young. It was silly I know but that was before the-" He paused, the memory still made his breath hitch as everything replayed. Smoke, and a lot of flames, and a lot of wrong. But…that was then and this was now. He squeezed his eyes shut and took a deep breath before opening them again and continuing his words. "I guess now there's so much going on like...how I'm rebuilding Baymax. I found your plans for him and his healthcare chip really wasn't destroyed in the portal. He had slipped it into his fist as he rocket fisted me out of there. I'm happy to say I'm almost done with him. There's just one last bug to fix and then presto! When I insert that chip Baymax will be back. I don't know how you knew but I think...I think you knew that someday I would be needing Baymax more than I needed you. Hell, the world will need Baymax more than anything else. You created something that will help a lot of people."
Hiro sat in silence for a minute as he finished his tea and then spoke " I wish you could be there to see me put his chip in. ...Well you'll be there in spirit." A solemn tear rolled down his cheek. Wiping it off on his hoodie Hiro looked at it and chuckled "To think this old hand me down used to be yours. Well it finally fits." Looking up at Tadashi's grave he saw a white butterfly floating past. To him it felt like a lucky sign. And the thought surprised him. Typically as the analytical and brainy person he was, he was never one for such ideas, but when everything reminded him of Tadashi then so did this. Years ago at the SanFran zoo, he'd seen the butterfly exhibit with Tadashi. What was he? 10 if he remembered correctly. Tadashi had been plagued by these white butterflies as they kept landing on this patterned shirt of his, mistaking it for flowers. Aunt Cass had taken a relentless amount of photos and thus the memory had burned a hole in Hiro's mind. So this felt almost like proof that Tadashi was here in spirit to listen. The butterfly stayed with him all the way back on the walk to the lab and It continued to float outside the window. Even as the last glitches and bugs disappeared from Baymaxes coding and Hiro finally inserted that chip, the little butterfly still stood on the sill of the rounded lab window. As Baymax came together, he could imagine what Tadashi would have said right then and there if he could have seen it happen. "Welcome to nerd school...knucklehead."