Hey guys! Here's your next one shot, this one is just one part. It's kinda violent, so you might want to skip this one if you're sensitive. Please review! Thank you to silverfox02029 for reviewing! I actually already had a one shot planned with that storyline, so that will be the next one I post! Thanks so much and request if you have any more!

TRIGGER WARNING: VIOLENCE AND CHILD ABUSE (only physical, no sexual abuse)

HIRO

Almost home.

It's almost eleven, and Aunt Cass is driving us back after my third college showcase in two weeks. This time it was in Los Angeles, so we've been on the road for the past seven hours straight, and I am exhausted. My next one is in Utah—that drive will be way worse. We can't afford a plane.

"Are we almost there?" Tadashi mumbles, sounding more like an eight-year-old than eighteen.

"Almost," Aunt Cass replies drowsily.

I can feel my head nodding, sleep threatening to take over my body. But a sudden jolt, mingling with Aunt Cass's scream, banishes all thoughts of sleep from my mind.

Tadashi screams almost as high as Aunt Cass does, his yell abruptly cut off as he goes limp in his seat. I feel my body collide hard with my door and scream with the pain of several bruises all at once. Shards of glass from the opposite window slice into my flesh, and I feel blood trickling up my arms and shoulders.

Up?

I become suddenly aware of two things: one, that the pain is subsiding, and two, that I am upside down.

Not only is the pain fading, my mind is also starting to feel clouded and muddy. I can't think straight. Where was I? I was in the car, I know that. Something hit me. And then blood. Lots of blood. I normally faint at the sight of blood. Should I be fainting? Why haven't I fainted yet?

The car door swings open to reveal a worried-looking man in a uniform, hanging off the ground like a bat. My adrenaline- and shock-infused brain doesn't even stop to wonder why.

It suddenly occurs to me that the man in the uniform is trying to talk to me.

"Can you hear me, kid?" he half-shouts. "Are you alive?"

"I'm alive," I mumble. "Why am I upside down?"

"Your car was hit and rolled over a few times."

"Really?"

"You don't remember?"

"No, I remember. I just didn't know that was what happened. Specifically."

"Ah."

I tilt my head so he appears the right way up. "I think all the blood is rushing to my head."

"Well, come down, then."

"How?"

"Just unbuckle your seatbelt—"

I do so and fall onto the roof of the car. "Ow."

"Slowly."

"Well, that bit would have been nice to know before I unbuckled it."

He laughs. "What's your name, kid?"

"Hiro," I tell him as I push myself upright, wincing. "Who're you?"

"Parry Meese. My friends all call me Parameese because I'm an EMT."

"Cool nickname," I mutter, the pain steadily returning. "Shouldn't you be taking me to a hospital or something?"

"Yes." He grabs my shoulders and pulls me out of the car, setting me on my feet. I flinch as pain flares in my shoulder and almost the entire rest of my right side.

Parameese leads me into an ambulance, ignoring my slightly delirious rambling about Tadashi and Aunt Cass. He helps ease me onto a stretcher, then pulls out a syringe.

My mind suddenly clears. "What are you doing."

"I need to sedate you, kid. You're still in shock, and you're gonna be in a lot of pain as soon as it wears off. I don't have painkillers on me, so this is all I've got."

"No, not that, no needles…" I whisper faintly.

"It's okay, Hiro, it'll only hurt for a second."

"No…don't…"

I feel a pinch in my arm and the world slowly dissolves.

TADASHI

I wake up with my jaw, left leg, forehead, and chest all throbbing painfully. I'm lying wrapped in stark-white sheets, the covers twisted around me. I wonder how much I struggled in my sleep. I know there was a nightmare, but…

Mom and Dad. Hiro. Fire. Chemical fumes wafting toward me, filling my lungs. Hiro sobbing in my arms, trying to run after Dad, holding my baby brother back as the building bursts into flames—

I realize I'm sweating, curled into a fetal position on the mattress. The nightmares usually aren't this frequent. Usually a couple times a year, tops. But lately they've been happening more and more often—at least once a week.

A knock comes at the door and I mumble a "come in," still trying to force the images of my parents' burning lab from my mind.

"Tadashi?" comes the doctor's voice. "Are you feeling any better?"

"No," I grumble into the pillow.

"Why not?"

"I had a nightmare. And everything hurts. And I'm sweltering."

I sit up and pull off my hospital gown, suddenly aware that a young female nurse is standing a few feet behind the doctor. I do have shorts on, but she still blushes once my chest is exposed.

"That's better," I say, massaging my ribs and wincing. "Do you have like, painkillers or something?"

"I do, but I'll need to prescribe a dosage for you. On a scale of one to ten, how do you rate your pain?"

I shrug. "Zero?"

"You asked me for pain medication."

"Fine. One."

"What about when you inhale? We suspect you have internal injuries to your rib cage."

"Deeply or shallow?"

"Try deeply. If it hurts too much, you can stop."

I inhale slowly, the breath abruptly cut off by my cry of agony. The doctor opens his mouth, but I hold up a hand, stopping him. I can do it. I have to keep breathing or I won't be able to once I heal, no matter how much it hurts—which is a lot.

Pain stabs at my chest with each inhale, but I force myself to breathe normally. I can do this. I can handle a little pain.

I feel soft, gentle hands on my bare shoulders and look up to see the young nurse holding me steady, her face twisted with concern.

"Stop breathing like you're ten feet underwater," she orders. "You're hurting yourself."

My breaths turn shallow and careful, and my shoulders slump, relaxing as the stabbing pains in my rib cage recede. I'm an idiot.

The nurse's hands slide off my shoulders. Her knuckle brushes against my bare chest and I flinch slightly. She gives me a flirtatious smile and turns away.

"Can you handle an x-ray, Tadashi?" the doctor asks. "We probably shouldn't let you move around yet, but if you feel like you can handle it, we can try."

"I can do it," I mutter, pushing myself into a sitting position. "I can—ah!"

The moment I take a step, the pain returns and I collapse back onto the bed. I close my eyes, wondering why there are so many bright lights crossing my vision.

"Tadashi?" The young nurse's voice comes from above me. "Are you all right?"

"I'm fine."

"I don't think you are. You should rest for a few more hours. I'll get you a painkiller dosage, okay?"

"Sounds…great."

"Height and weight?"

"Five foot ten," I mumble. "One hundred fifty-three."

"Thank you." She throws me another smile and walks away.

HIRO

I will get those gummy bears if it is the last thing I do.

I force myself out of bed and let out a whimper of pain as soon as I put weight on my right leg. My hip bone is bruised, so the closest I can get to walking is a limp. But I have my heart set on those gummy bears, and I'm to stubborn to give up at anything.

I lean heavily on the railing as I hobble down the stairs toward the vending machine, trying to keep the pain in my leg to a minimum. No one has offered me pain medicine yet, which I find kind of incompetent for a hospital. It would be really nice to have some right now.

The light of the vending machines stands out against the darkness, guiding me toward my gummy bears. I limp toward the machines, fish a few dollars out of my pocket, and the machine spits out three packs of gummy bears.

I turn back toward the staircase, and the two-minute climb seems like a thousand steps.

I think I'm just gonna stay down here.

After a half hour or so, Tadashi finds me, sitting at the bottom of the steps and eating gummy bears.

"Hiro!" he yelps, rushing toward me. "What are you doing? Why are you out of bed?"

"Chill the overprotective big brother, Dashi." I try my best to smirk. "I'm fine."

"But what are you doing?"

I shrug my good shoulder. "I wanted gummy bears."

"You shouldn't be out of your room."

"I know." I smirk again. "I don't care."

He sighs. "You little idiot."

"Hey."

Tadashi throws up his arms in surrender. "You're a knucklehead, okay? Go back to your room."

"I'm not going back up those stairs."

"Why not?"

"My leg."

"You came down here, though?"

"Yep."

"Knucklehead," he mutters again.

A second later, I feel myself being lifted off the ground. "Uhh…what are you doing?"

"If you don't want to walk, you don't have to."

"I told you, I'm fine!"

"No, you're not. I'll carry you."

I fight him the whole way up the first flight of stairs, but after that, I start to relax and my body goes limp. He really is just trying to help. And he's clearly not giving up anyway.

We pass a mirror on the way and I yelp in surprise. I look terrible. There's nothing visible that's really bad, but my entire left side is cut and scraped and my right is covered in bruises. I look like I've been through a blender.

Tadashi dumps me unceremoniously on my bed and collapses into a chair next to it. He looks exhausted and pained. I wonder what's wrong with him.

"Are you okay, Dashi?" I mumble as I crawl under the covers on my bed.

"I'm fine," he says, but his hand massages the right side of his rib cage. "Just a little banged up."

I raise an eyebrow.

"Bruised ribs. Fractured jaw. Bruised tibia. And I have these stupid panda eyes from the airbag."

I glance up and, in the better lighting, I can see the bruises ringing both his eyes. I laugh before I can stop myself. He really does look like a panda, or maybe a raccoon.

"Are you feeling okay?" Dashi asks.

"Yep."

"Are you hurt bad?"

"That was really horrible grammar, Tadashi."

"Yeah, I know. But are you okay?"

"Let's see." I count off on my fingers. "Bruised hip, wrenched shoulder, hematoma, bruises all over my right side, cuts and scrapes all over my left. It's not that bad."

He gapes at me.

"What?" I shrug. "None of them are serious."

"Yeah, but you have a lot of them."

"I know."

I feel my eyelids getting heavy. I haven't been awake for long, but the last time I slept was sedative-induced and thus not very relaxing.

Dashi strokes my hair the way he did when I was little, and in a matter of minutes, I fall asleep.

The hospital discharges us the next morning and we head back to the café. Aunt Cass says we'll keep it closed for a few days so we can all rest.

She does make us go back to SFIT after a week, though, the day after the café opens back up. I've been making donuts all night and I got roughly two hours of sleep. Should be a great day.

My head keeps nodding in thermodynamics class, and I'm absorbing Professor Granville's words without hearing any of them. It's not until she mentions the words "pop" and "quiz" right in a row that I actually start paying attention.

A pop quiz? Now? Not today, of all days. I've missed a week of school, I barely slept last night, and I'm sore beyond belief. There is no way I'm going to pass a pop quiz today.

For most of the questions, I actually try to get them right, but for the rest, I just pick C and move on. I know I know this, but I'm too tired to think about it.

Once everyone is done, I walk up to the front of the room and hand Professor Granville my test, still struggling to keep my eyes open. She takes one look at my paper and raises an eyebrow suspiciously.

"Are you trying to fail, Mr. Hamada?" she asks.

"No," I mumble.

"Even one missed answer is unusual for you."

"I know."

"Is everything all right?"

"Not really."

"Explain, please, Mr. Hamada."

I take a deep breath and the words come spilling out of me. "So last week I was in a car crash and I wasn't hurt really bad but I got scraped and bruised all over and I had to miss a week of school and my aunt just reopened the café and I've been up all night and I'm sore as heck and I can't concentrate on a test to save my life."

I rub the shrinking bump on my head, the one still giving me a headache. Stupid hematoma.

Professor Granville sighs. "I'll excuse you this time, Mr. Hamada, but next time, get some sleep."

I'm slightly more awake when I enter the café, but all I really want to do is sleep.

"Hey, Aunt Cass," I yawn as I enter the café. "I'm just going to…go upstairs and…sleep…"

Something thin and flimsy hits me in the back of the head. I turn around just as the apron and do-rag fall to the floor.

"No, you're not," Aunt Cass says sternly. "Put those on. I need you and Tadashi in the café."

"But…" I yawn again. "I can't…"

"Go get your brother."

I pick up the apron and do-rag and go upstairs to find Tadashi asleep on his bed, the blankets thrown haphazardly aside. I cross the room and shake his shoulder lightly.

"Tadashi," I whisper. "Rise and shine, Sleeping Beauty."

"Mmph," he mumbles.

"C'mon, bro. Aunt Cass wants us in the café."

"No."

"Why not?"

"Good night."

I slap him gently in the face. "Tadashi! Get up!"

"Fine, fine!" Tadashi sits up, rubbing his eyes. "I'm coming!"

I turn and head down the stairs to the café, tying the do-rag over my hair as I go. I'm no good at baking, but it usually turns out okay when Aunt Cass coaches me.

I place a batch of donuts in the oven and turn it on. I'm pretty sure that's how long they need baking for.

Eh. No one's going to notice a batch of slightly burnt donuts.

I take orders at the counter until my donuts are done. But before they're fully baked, I smell smoke.

"Oh no," I mutter, darting back into the kitchen.

Tadashi throws a bucket of water over the batch of donuts, which I'm sure works really well. Now we have burnt and soggy donuts.

He turns to me and grins. "Well, no one's going to notice after they dry off a little, right?"

I snort. "Right. Only burnt soggy donuts are pretty much the worst-tasting thing we could ever serve."

"Darn right they are." He sniffs the inside of the oven and wrinkles his nose in disgust. "Hey, you burned them, so you can clean them up. I'll take counter duty."

I give him the pouty face. He laughs and turns toward the counter.

I sigh and start to clean up the donuts. They really are disgusting.

A hand grabs my elbow and I turn around, thinking it's Tadashi here to tease me about being slow. But I see Aunt Cass's face instead.

"What's this?" she hisses.

I shrug. "What's it look like?"

I yelp as she shoves me against the counter, pain shooting through my still-sore shoulder. She looks mad. Not angry mad—out-of-her-mind mad.

"I don't tolerate blunders in my kitchen." She raises one hand over her shoulder.

I can feel my hands shaking. "Aunt Cass?"

She's not herself, my mind says. Something is wrong.

"Aunt Cass, I'm sorry. It was an accident."

"I don't do accidents here," she hisses.

Her hand whips across my face. I gasp and my hand flies to my cheek, only for her to smack it away.

"Clean this up," she snarls, and walks away.

TADASHI

I yawn as I walk up the stairs to our room, trying not to collapse before I get there. The café closed thirty seconds ago and I'm already dead on my feet.

"Hey Hiro," I mumble as I enter the room. "I'm just gonna…"

I trail off before I can finish my sentence. Hiro is sitting on his bed, staring at the ground with a pillow wrapped in his arms.

"What's wrong?" I sit down next to Hiro and tilt his chin up. "Come on. You can tell me."

"It's nothing," he says blankly. "I'm fine."

"Hiro, look at me."

He turns his head, his eyes wide and innocent, and I catch sight of the beginnings of a bruise on his left cheek.

"Hiro!" I gasp. "What happened to your face?"

"Nothing," he replies more forcefully.

"Hiro, tell me."

He sighs. "I ran into the railing, Tadashi. It's nothing. Really."

I don't fully believe him, but I let it slide. I climb into bed and let sleep take me.

I wake up to the sound of Aunt Cass shouting in the kitchen and Hiro's muffled protests. I scramble out of bed and down the stairs.

I can't tell what Aunt Cass is yelling about, but she sounds really mad. Hiro probably broke something.

Hiro's protests turn into painful cries and I break into a run. Aunt Cass is in the kitchen, still shouting. Hiro is curled into a ball on the kitchen floor as her shoes connect with his torso.

I rush toward Aunt Cass and grab her shoulders, pulling her away from Hiro. Hiro raises his head, clutching his ribs.

I turn to Aunt Cass, still gripping her shoulders. "What is wrong with you?" I shout.

"Let go of me," she growls.

"What were you thinking?" I hiss. "What did he do to you?"

She glares at me and tears out of my grasp. "He needed discipline."

I make a disgusted sound and turn to Hiro, pulling him up. He winces as he gets to his feet but doesn't protest.

"Are you okay?" I whisper.

"I'm fine," Hiro insists. "Just sore."

"Are you sure?"

"I'm sure."

"Fine." I throw a glare back at Aunt Cass. "Let's go. School starts in twenty minutes."

HIRO

The next few weeks are a blur. I try to stay out of Aunt Cass's way for most of it, and it usually works. She's no better than before, but she's no worse either. Most of it is just shouting when Tadashi's around, because physically, he could take her down any day. But when he's not home, it gets worse. He finds me scared and shaking some days, bruised and bloody other days. One day she went at me with a frying pan. It hurt like heck.

One night after dinner, Aunt Cass calls for me from the garage. She sounds so much like herself again that I wonder if she's back to normal.

I glance at Tadashi and he shrugs. He follows me closely all the way down the stairs, never stepping more than two feet away from me.

Aunt Cass is smiling when we step out toward the car, looking so incredibly normal that I'm almost suspicious.

"Hop in," she says cheerfully. "I have a surprise for you."

Tadashi and I exchange glances, wondering if this is a miracle or a trick. I tug on my do-rag nervously, then climb into the truck. Tadashi places himself between me and Aunt Cass, ready to protect me if he has to.

"Aunt Cass," I ask after a few minutes, "where are we going?"

"If I told you, it wouldn't be a surprise."

She sounds less cheerful now. Almost cold.

A few minutes after that, the terrain around us turns from the sparkling metropolis of San Fransokyo to a dim, wooded area. I recognize these woods, and nothing good has ever happened to me here.

"Hiro," Tadashi whispers under his breath. "Do you know what we're doing here?"

I shrug. "Do you?"

He leans closer and breathes, "I think Aunt Cass is kidnapping us."

My eyes widen in shock, but I believe him. Most kidnappers are someone their victim knows or is related to. And given how strange Aunt Cass has been acting lately, I'm willing to believe she'd do anything. She's not right in the head.

"Hiro," Tadashi whispers. "I need you to open your door on the count of three. That's all. And maybe unbuckle your seat belt. And curl into a little ball. One—"

I don't know what he's doing, but I decide to trust him. I unbuckle silently and curl up in my seat.

"Two—"

He leans in and whispers, "And try to land on your back."

"Wait, wha—"

"Three!"

And he shoves me out of the car.

I scream as I hit the ground, but I do manage to land on my back like Tadashi said to. I bounce several times and then skid across the forest floor, which does no favors to my consistently sore body. But at least I'm not in the car with my crazed, abusive aunt.

"Note to self," I mutter. "Never jump or be pushed out of a moving car again."

A thought hits me as I lay in the mud.

Tadashi is still in the car with my crazed, abusive aunt.

Ah, flip.

I reluctantly get up and start limping along the road—I think I hurt my ankle when I landed. It's probably not worse than a bad twist, though.

After several minutes of walking, a pair of lights looms out of the darkness. Headlights.

Aunt Cass's blue truck stops beside me, the driver's side window rolling down as she parks. She glares at me, and behind her I see a bloodied, half-conscious Tadashi.

"Get in the car. Now."

TADASHI

I feel horrible. Physically and emotionally. After Hiro was out, Aunt Cass started screaming until I jerked the wheel and drove the car into a ditch. She got out and started yelling at me, which quickly escalated into a fistfight, which she won.

I think Aunt Cass has been doing something. She seems abnormally strong. My guess is she's on drugs—taking crack or something. It all makes sense, as much as I don't want it to be true.

When we get home, Aunt Cass banishes me to my room and I go quietly, afraid she'll take it out on Hiro if I don't. I'm scared to leave her alone with Hiro, but he should be fine. He didn't do anything wrong. If it gets bad, I can step in and vouch for him.

I hear Aunt Cass shouting from the kitchen, but it doesn't sound worse than a lecture. Hiro gets lectured all the time.

It gets quiet and I think maybe she's calmed down. Hiro sounds like he's apologizing, but I can't make out all the words from up here.

The whole house goes silent.

Then I hear a snap.

And Hiro's bloodcurdling screams.

I almost fall down the stairs in my rush to get to Hiro. Aunt Cass has gone too far this time. I can't tell what she's done, but whatever it is has put Hiro in excruciating pain, and that is too much.

Hiro is pressed against the kitchen counter, Aunt Cass gripping his wrists. His right wrist is twisted to an angle I don't like, and tears stream down his scraped, dirty face.

"Hiro!"

Aunt Cass swivels to face me, still pinning Hiro against the wall. Her eyes blaze with a crazed fury that I know does not come from a human being.

I start toward them, but Aunt Cass tightens her grip on Hiro's wrists, and Hiro lets out a scream that slices into me like a knife. I stop.

"Don't move," Aunt Cass hisses, "or I'll break the other one, too."

I believe she can and will do it, so I stay put. I can get help. Somehow. I have to get help.

Aunt Cass turns back to Hiro, squeezing harder on his wrist. She may not know it, but she's actually helping him—putting pressure on the bone so it'll go back into place.

"This is for trying to escape," she growls. "You stay here. With me."

Hiro's eyes harden into a glare. "I don't want to stay with you."

"You stay here."

"I won't." Hiro's voice starts to rise.

"Yes you will, Hiro. Promise. Promise you'll never try to run away again."

He glowers at her. "Not until you go back to being the Aunt Cass I knew."

She twists slightly, and even that movement forces a sob of pain out of Hiro. "Promise."

Hiro shakes his head. Aunt Cass twists harder, and Hiro screams.

"Promise," she repeats, her teeth bared as her fingers probe the break.

Hiro says nothing, only whimpering in pain when she twists his broken wrist.

"Promise, Hiro."

"Aunt Cass, please!" Hiro shrinks back against the counter, trying to stay as far away from her as possible. "Please…stop…"

A flex of her hand forces another sob from him, and the sound of my baby brother's pleas puts me over the edge. All Aunt Cass's attention is focused on Hiro.

I tackle Aunt Cass, knocking her away from Hiro. I pinch the nerve in her neck that I know will incapacitate her but not hurt her, and seconds later, her body goes limp.

I get to my feet, breathing hard. All the anger drains out of me as I catch sight of Hiro, curled into a ball on the ground, clutching his wrist and sobbing in agony.

I fall to my knees next to Hiro, pulling him into my arms. He buries his face in my chest and all the tears bottled up inside me burst out. Why? Why us? Why him? Why my sweet baby brother, my ototo,the brother I promised my parents I would protect?

I pull out my phone and call 911, explaining the situation the best I can. The dispatcher says the police will be there right away.

We wait there until they come, clutching each other on the kitchen floor. I hold my abused, traumatized little brother in my arms, ignoring the ache in my own body left over from the crash and the beating earlier tonight.

"We're okay," I mumble into Hiro's hair. "We're gonna be okay."

We have to be.

HIRO

Aunt Cass is in the hospital. The tests they ran on her suggest she has brain damage from the car crash, probably to her temporal parietal junction. I can't blame her for what she did. She wasn't in her right mind, so we're not pressing charges. But the authorities still think it would be a good idea for us to live somewhere else while she recovers.

Honey offers to let us stay with her and GoGo, since we can't find anywhere else to live. Baymax comes with us—he's been staying at SFIT since the crash. Tadashi was afraid Aunt Cass would puncture him.

Baymax meets us at Honey's apartment a few hours after Aunt Cass's arrest. He's been locked in Tadashi's lab for a month. I'm not sure what state he'll be in.

"Hello." Baymax waves as he enters the apartment. "I am Baymax, your perso—"

He stops. "What the flip happened to you?"

I rub the back of my neck with my good hand. "I'd rather not get into it."

"I will scan you now scan complete. Do you have gummy bears? I would like some gummy bears. You cannot say you do not want some gummy bears—"

Baymax's voice is becoming increasingly high-pitched. I hold out a hand to stop him.

"Slow down, buddy," I tell him. "We're fine."

Mochi meows from behind me—we couldn't leave him at the café.

"Animal healthcare. I am downloading a database on—"

"BAYMAX!"

Baymax stops and stares at me. He blinks.

"I'm. Fine," I say slowly. "Stay calm."

"Yourscansaysyouhaveabrokenwristandseveralepidermalabrasions—"

Tadashi walks up to Baymax and smacks him in the face.

Baymax blinks. "Hello. I am Baymax, your personal healthcare companion. You have been injured. Would you like treatment?"

"Thanks, buddy." I sigh as he wraps my wrist in a bandage and patches up my cuts. Back to normal. Note to self: when Baymax is high, slap him in the face.

Baymax bandages Tadashi's injuries once he's done with mine. As soon as he applies the last band-aid, he wraps both of us in a hug.

"Baymax?" Tadashi mumbles. "What are you doing?"

"I am offering physical reassurance," Baymax explains. He pats my head.

"You will be alright."

Thanks for reading! Please leave your comments and requests!