It looks like this fic will be longer than I had planned at first. Not only it got quite a good amount of feedback (Thanks to everyone who followed/favorited/reviewed this so far. You guys rock!) but also I've been having a lot of ideas for this. I adore Tadashi and Hiro's relationship, it's being fun to explore it for a new angle.

Why do I always fall for the characters who die? Honestly, I need to stop it.


Tadashi stared at his phone, which kept ringing and buzzing in his hand. He knew that he needed to answer the call; otherwise Aunt Cass would be worried. Tadashi was always with his phone and he always answered calls; unless something serious had happened or he had fallen asleep working late again.

Hiro was still in his lap, smiling as he looked around him. Tadashi tapped Hiro's shoulder, causing the younger to look at him, and put his finger to his mouth asking for silence. Hiro nodded and kept looking around at the several things his brother had in his lab.

With his heart beating fast in both fear and jitters, Tadashi finally moved his thumb to hit the 'answer' button and took a deep breath before lifting his hand to his ear. He felt like his tongue was heavier than ever and there was something locking his throat, but he finally gulped and started speaking.

"Hello. Tadashi Hamada here." He made his best to sound relaxed and worry-free, but he was glad Cass couldn't see him through the phone. His eyes were fluttering and his smile was anything but true. All he could do was hope he was doing a better job with disguising his nervous voice.

"Tadashi!" Aunt Cass said happily on the other end. "Sorry to be calling so early. I'm not interrupting anything, am I?"

"No, not at all. How's grandma?" He asked, sounding a little more relaxed.

"She's fine. You know how neurotic she can be. Honestly, I think it's just a cold and the woman is overreacting. But I'll stay here until the end of the week anyway. Maybe a little longer than that."

Thanks Heaven, Tadashi thought.

"No rush." Tadashi laughed in a nervous tone, trying to sound natural. "Stay there as long as you want. Everything here's fine. Totally ok. No problem at all."

Tadashi could almost see Aunt Cass raising her eyebrow through the phone because of his awkwardness. He would have slapped himself in the face if he wasn't on the phone.

"Are you sure you're ok?" Aunt Cass said, worried.

"Yes." He sighed. "I'm just a little stressed with college, that's all. I swear." Tadashi felt his throat being locked again. Lying was definitely something he wasn't good at or something he did very often. The last time he had done it he was even younger than Hiro. Well, teen Hiro. He lied about eating a candy and confessed three minutes later because he was feeling guilty. However, he couldn't confess this time. His aunt could be ok about a stolen candy, but she surely wouldn't be about Hiro being a baby.

"Ok. Don't work too hard, now. I don't want to find you snoring into your books again." She giggled at the memory. "Hum, how's Hiro?"

Tadashi's eyes widened and he felt his heart beat fast again. He bit his lower lip and looked at his brother, who seemed to be very interested in a piece of a failed robot Tadashi had tried to build the week before. Hiro couldn't be more peaceful, Tadashi couldn't be more anxious.

"Oh, Hiro? He's fine." It was all he was able to say.

"Good. How did things go with him today? He isn't giving you a hard time, is he?"

"Hum, no, not at all. I left him sleeping at home. He never wakes up early, you know." Tadashi knew his aunt couldn't see him, but he couldn't help forcing a smile to assure it was everything alright. Maybe he was trying to convince himself rather than convince Cass.

Before she could answer, Hiro left Tadashi's lap to walk away from his brother, wanting to get that piece he had been staring at for the last minutes. It shouldn't have been a problem, but when Hiro touched the floor he let out a wail and a moan, loud enough for Cass to hear through the phone.

"Was that a baby?" She asked.

Tadashi straightened up in a second and took a deep breath. "Hum, no, it's just... A movie."

"Aren't you at college now?"

"I am, but..." He looked around as he tried to come with a believable excuse. "Fred brought his laptop and... One of our teachers is sick and we have some free time. So we're watching a movie." Tadashi crossed his fingers and hoped Cass would believe his words.

"Oh, ok. I'm going to hang up now; I don't want to keep you busy on your free time."

Tadashi was about to say bye when he looked at Hiro. The boy was in the middle of the room, holding that piece like it was the most interesting thing he had ever seen. Tadashi blinked and took a deep breath.

"Actually, Aunt Cass, I want you ask you something. If you don't need to leave right away."

"Hum, sure. What is it?"

"Well..." He closed his eyes and stood up, walking around the room. "When Hiro was around five or six years old, was he a normal kid?"

There was silence on the other end that Tadashi took as meaning his aunt was surprised by the question or hadn't understood it. Maybe both.

"What do you mean by 'a normal kid'?" She asked at last.

"Did he act like he was supposed to act?"

Silence again. All Tadashi could hear was his own breath.

"Why are you asking that?"

"I was looking at some old pictures last night and... I... I don't know. I think I may remember something that made me believe he wasn't like he was supposed to be when he was around five. Or four."

And the Oscar for worst liar of the year goes to... Tadashi thought as he felt his face going red. He could build a robot in a day, but he couldn't come up with a decent excuse. He thought Cass wasn't going to buy it, but he was surprised when she started speaking after a short silence.

"Actually, he wasn't exactly normal. I don't know why, maybe your parents' death affected him somehow; even more than it affected you, but he was so young... He was a pretty smart kid, after all he did graduate high school when he was thirteen, but he seemed so... I don't know, distant. He could understand everything going on around him, but he could barely speak and he was very needy. He wasn't able to fully talk until he was around ten. I took him to a few doctors, but... There was never anything wrong with him. He just refused to talk and acted that way."

Tadashi could almost see his aunt's worried look. Silence lasted for a few seconds as Tadashi looked to his young brother sitting on the floor. He tried to reflect on what he had just learnt, but shook his head and snapped back to reality.

"Oh, ok. I was just curious, that's it."

"You know," Cass continued. "I was very protective of him when he was a baby. Maybe because I was afraid he'd never be normal, I don't know. He was always so fussy, it was nearly impossible to hold him. When he was around ten, I started to calm down and stopped being so protective. Or maybe I was giving up on him." She sighed. "And it was when he started to get obsessed with you. He always called you 'Dashi', remember that? He was crazy for you." Cass stopped to sigh again, but then Tadashi thought he also heard a soft giggle. "I think he started to develop better after he started having more contact with you."

Tadashi blinked and gulped. He looked at the little boy on the floor again. Hiro was lying down on his back, holding the piece above his face as he examined it. Could it be true? Was Tadashi the reason Hiro started to actually grow like he should?

"That's cool, Aunt Cass. It made me happy. Thank you. Sorry if I brought any sad memories."

"No, it's ok. I'm glad you asked it. I'll call again later, ok? Tell Hiro I said hi."

"I will. Bye, Aunt Cass. Good luck with grandma."

"Good luck with Hiro. You may need some. Goodbye."

If you only knew it, Aunt Cass. Tadashi thought as he smiled and finally hung up. He collapsed on the chair, relieved, as Hiro stood up and dropped the piece, walking up to Tadashi. The boy put his hands together and rubbed them, gulping and taking a deep breath.

"Ta... Dashi."

The older brother's eyes shot open as he looked down, tilting his head.

"What did you say?"

"I said..." Hiro forced his tongue against his palate a few times, trying to say the "T" again, but failed. He wiped his mouth with his sleeve before folding his arms, disappointed. "I said Dashi."

Tadashi smiled and grabbed the boy, putting Hiro in his lap again.

"It's ok, buddy. You'll learn it someday."

Hiro shrugged and smiled, looking at his brother. Tadashi caressed Hiro's hair as he sighed, hugging his brother. Hiro happily wrapped his arms around his older brother in return.

"What am I going to do with you, Hiro?"

"Dashi. T-T-T... Tadashi." The boy muttered under his breath with a smile.


Tadashi was about to put Hiro back on the floor when someone knocked on the door. It startled him for a moment, but he sighed when he saw his friends entering his lab.

"Hey, Tadashi."

"Hey, guys. Are you ready to work on the gun?"

"Actually we came here to call you. Professor Callaghan is giving a lecture in the room 102 and you need to go."

"What? But I can't leave Hiro alone."

"Dashi?" Hiro asked, tilting his head with a sad expression. Tadashi stood up with the boy on his arms and tapped Hiro's back to calm him down.

"Any of you can keep an eye on him?"

"I can do it!" Fred said.

"GoGo, can you take care of Hiro?" Tadashi asked, ignoring the blond boy.

"Sorry." She shrugged. "I need to go to the lecture too. It's not about my major, but it could help me to build my bike."

"Hum, I said I can do it." Fred raised his hand.

"And you, Honey Lemon?" The older Hamada turned to the blonde girl.

"I have to go back to my lab and work more if I want to finish my project in time. I could take Hiro with me, but keeping a five year old boy in a lab full of chemistry doesn't sound like a good idea to me."

"Pick me!" Fred jumped.

"Wasabi?"

"Sorry." He held out his hands. "I need to work on my laser plasma. I can't watch your brother right now. But after we're all finished, we can finally work on that gun."

"That's good, but I need someone to watch Hiro now. I can't take him to watch the lecture with me!"

The friends exchanged looks and bit their lips as they glanced at the clock and left the room in a hurry. GoGo looked at Tadashi and pointed to her wristwatch, asking him to hurry as well. Now Tadashi was alone with Hiro and Fred. The latter walked up to Tadashi and put a hand on his shoulder.

"Well, guess it's down to me to watch Hiro." He smiled as he put his hands on his pockets. "Or that weird guy who cleans the hallways."

"Oh, Joe is here?" Tadashi said as he looked to the hallway through the open door.

"Tadashi!" Fred groaned. "I can take care of this young guy. It's going to be fun! And he's going to be ok. It will only last for an hour or so!"

Tadashi sighed and bit his lip. He looked at Hiro and then at Fred. He could feel his body telling him that was a bad idea and he could almost hear his brain yelling at him for being so irresponsible.

"Hiro, I'll have to be gone for a while. You're going to stay with Fred, ok? But the rules still stand!"

"Dashi?" He tilted his head again.

Tadashi put Hiro down and looked at Fred.

"Fred, please... Just once... Try not to..." He couldn't think of a nice way to say the things he was thinking.

"Don't worry, Tadashi. Hiro's going to be just fine. He has his uncle Fred to take care of him!"

"That's what I'm worried about." Tadashi said, just above a whisper. He looked at the door after hearing a knock and saw GoGo pointing to her wristwatch again before leaving once more.

"I have to go now. Don't walk away from Fred, ok?" He said, looking at Hiro's eyes.

"Feddy."

"It's Fred, but we'll get there." The blond boy said as he tapped Hiro's back and laughed. Tadashi turned around after waving goodbye to his brother as he left him with his friend. He jogged toward the room 102, ignoring the millions of voices he heard inside his head warning him that it had been a bad idea.


"Ok, Hiro, it's you and me now." Fred said as he rubbed his hands. "You're kind of cute, you know that? I always wanted to have a younger brother. You should totally go visit my house so we can play video games! And Tadashi told me you could read, right? I hope you like comic books!"

Hiro was motionless as he looked at Fred and then at the door.

"Dashi?" He said, attempting to leave, but Fred held him back by his hood.

"No, no, no. Tadashi is busy right now, that's why I am taking care of you for the next hour. I know you love your brother and all, but Uncle Fred here can be fun too!" He said, showing Hiro his fist.

"Fist bump. Uncle Feddy."

"You'll get there. No need to rush. It took me seven years to say my first word!"

Even Hiro seemed to comprehend that statement shouldn't be said with such pride like Fred had done. The young boy tilted his head and folded his arms, giving Fred a skeptical look as the older one approached him and put his hand on Hiro's shoulder.

"Dashi." He said, looking down.

"Wow, I wish someone liked me the way you like your brother. Don't worry; he'll be back before you know it. Why do you like Tadashi so much, by the way? I understand he's your brother, but why?" Fred watched as Hiro looked up at him and then down again, without saying a word. "I guess you don't like to talk that much, hum? It's ok. Soon you'll be fourteen again. And Tadashi is an amazing friend, by the way. You're lucky to have him as a brother."

Hiro finally smiled.

"Tadashi told me quite a lot about you. Actually, he talks about you all the time here, did you know it?" It was when Fred's stomach growled. He patted his pocket and felt the few dollars he had. "I seem to be hungry. Do you like Gummy bears?" Hiro's smile, his jumps and happy wails let Fred know that he did. The blond boy walked up to the door and tilted his head, motioning for Hiro to follow him out.

Hiro looked around the room one more time and finally started to walk behind Fred. He was a little scared that Tadashi wasn't there with him, but he soon got distracted when they entered the hallway. Like before, a few students walked around it; there was science and robots all around him. He walked as he spun around several times to be able to look at all the directions. Fred walked a few feet in front of him. He glanced back at the young boy and saw how amazed Hiro was, causing him to giggle.

"Pretty cool, hum? I may not be a student, but I am a major science enthusiastic. Have I told you that? Oh, yeah, I said that when you were fourteen. Hey, that's a weird sentence when we consider that you're five now. I wonder how you'll feel when you are fourteen again. I loved to be fourteen. Hey, we're here! This is the machine where we..."

As Fred stopped in front of the selling machine, he turned around expecting to find Hiro still following him. But he trailed off when he looked from side to side and realized the young boy wasn't anywhere to be found.

"Hiro?" He called as he spun around. The lack of reply let him know he was alone. Fred bit his lip and let out some air. "Yeah, this could be a problem."


Fred ran toward the room 102 and opened the door. The room was huge; with around two hundred students sitting as they listened to Callaghan, who spoke from the stage ahead. Nobody seemed to notice Fred, as he stood in the doorway and looked from side to side. He spotted Tadashi sitting far away, which made him sigh in relief. He then spotted GoGo, who was sitting on a chair near the door. He gulped and walked toward her, asking sorry as he walked on the aisles in front of the other students.

"Hey, GoGo." He whispered, kneeling down in the aisle.

"Fred?" She whispered back as she squinted her eyes to look at him in the few light inside that room. All the light they had was the spotlight over Callaghan.

"I need your help." He nodded when someone asked him to be quiet, standing up and going back to the door. When he was there, he motioned for GoGo to go with him. She frowned in confusion, but shook her head and stood up from her seat. She dodged the other students' legs and made her best to leave the room without making too much noise. She opened the door and finally left, meeting a worried Fred outside.

"Fred, what are you doing? You can't just go in there and ask me to leave..." She trailed off as realization hit her and she looked from side to side. "Fred, where's Hiro?"

"Well, about that..." He let out a nervous chuckle. "I sort of don't know where he is right now."

"You lost Hiro?!" She yelled, causing all the students to look at her and raise their eyebrows. She forced a laugh and waved at them shyly before grabbing Fred's arm and dragging him to the hallway. She released him and turned to look at his face. "How did you lose Hiro?! He's like a puppy; you can just drag him around! All you had to do was look at him!"

"I thought he was following me, but in the end he wasn't. I just want your help to look for him before Tadashi has the chance to notice it."

"Fred, don't you get it? This place has guns, lasers, knifes, explosions! We can't..." She put her hand on her forehead and rubbed it. "We have to find him. Fast. Lucky you, Callaghan didn't want me to watch the whole thing. I think there won't be a problem if I leave earlier. Now, let's look for him! You go call Wasabi and Honey Lemon to see if they can help while I start looking for him. Where did you see him last?"

"On this very hallway, actually."

"Fine." She sighed. "What are you looking for? Go call them!" GoGo said as she started to run through the hallway. Fred recovered from the shock and nodded, jogging toward the Nerd's lab.


"Any of you had luck?" Wasabi asked as he joined his friends. They all shook their heads simultaneously, sharing worried looks. After Fred called them, Honey and Wasabi stopped their work and helped him to look around the college and ask some students if they had seen Hiro. Luckily, nobody had found a boy among dangerous stuff or injured; but at the same time nobody had seen Hiro at all.

"It's like he just disappeared out of nowhere!" Honey said, biting her finger in jitters.

"Wait!" Fred said, jumping out of the box he was sitting. "What if he was playing around and accidentally made a formula that made him invisible?"

"Not now, Fred!" His friends said at the same time, causing Fred to hold out his hands and sit down again.

"Are you sure you guys looked everywhere else? I looked in the labs." GoGo asked, folding her arms.

"From the second to the third floor." Wasabi said. "Honey looked on the first one. Fred looked outside. We didn't find him and nobody saw him! Well, we couldn't ask everyone. Some teachers were around and I don't know how they would react if they knew there's an unsupervised five year old boy somewhere around here."

"How long do we have until Tadashi leaves the lecture?" Fred asked, worried.

"Not much time…" Honey Lemon started to say, but she was interrupted by a door opening. When they turned their heads, they all froze when they saw Tadashi entering the hallway and walking toward them.

"Uh oh..." Wasabi said under his breath.

Tadashi walked slowly, rubbing his eyes with his hand as he stretched his muscles. The few extra hours he had to stay awake the night before because of Hiro had really got the best of him. Staying in a dark room in a comfortable chair didn't make it any easier for him to keep his eyes open. He finally got close to his friends and yawned.

"Hey, guys." He said as he looked around. It took him a moment, but he finally frowned and took a deep breath, afraid of the answer he was going to get for the question he was about to ask. "Hum, where's Hiro?"

"That is... An excellent question." Fred said, rubbing his hands.

"Where is he?" Tadashi asked, this time sounding angrier.

Before anyone could say anything else, they heard a loud happy wail coming from the end of the corridor that sounded very familiar. All they did was look at each other before they all started running toward the sound.


"What do you mean you lost Hiro?" Tadashi asked as they ran, looking into every open room they found.

"I thought he was following me!" Fred said.

"Damn it! There are no rooms left! We've looked everywhere and we don't know where that wail came from!" Tadashi said, slamming his back against a wall. "That's it! Aunt Cass is going to kill me!"

"We're going to find him, Tadashi. As far as we know, nobody found him hurt or anything. And more, sooner or later that boy will look for you." Honey said, smiling. "He's crazy for you."

Tadashi lifted his head in a second as he looked to the end of the hallway in the direction of his own lab. The door was closed, which meant they hadn't looked in there when they were running around. "You're right. He is crazy for me. And he would go to where he'd think he could find me!" He said as he bolt upright. "Did anyone look in my lab?"

"Hum, no... The door was closed..." GoGo said as she mentally slapped herself for not looking in there when Fred called her. She knew they should avoid entering in closed rooms because that usually meant something serious or chemical was going on in it, but if Tadashi was with her on the lecture, there couldn't be anything going on in his lab. She should know better.

Tadashi didn't waste any more time and ran to his lab, slamming the door open. He stood still in the doorway, staring blankly ahead as he tilted his head. His friends followed him, but stopped walking when they noticed his friend's reaction.

"Tadashi? What's wrong?" Wasabi asked.

"You... You all need to see this."


Tadashi slowly entered the room; his friends followed him inside as none of them could believe what they were seeing. In front of their eyes, on the corner of the room, a big white robot was holding Hiro in his arms, pressing the baby against his body. The baby slept peacefully; holding that same piece was playing with that morning like it was a stuffed animal. The robot's body was red, meaning that he was using his heater to keep the baby warm.

They did nothing but stare at the scene for a few seconds, until Tadashi spoke up.

"Baymax." He said, sighing in relief. Baymax finally took his eyes off the infant to look at Tadashi when he heard his name. The older brother approached the robot and looked at Hiro. He didn't seem to be injured or even scared. In fact, he seemed to be smiling as he slept. One of his hands held the piece and the other one clutched the robot's body.

"Tadashi." Baymax replied. It was enough to make Hiro wail and blink his eyes open, rubbing his face. The first thing he saw was the robot's head, and that made him smile. He then looked aside and noticed his brother standing there. He smiled as he dropped the piece and reached out, still sleepy.

"Dashi." He called after a yawn.

Tadashi sighed once again and carefully took the baby off the robot's arms, looking at him as he passed his hand through Hiro's hair. "Are you ok?"

Hiro nodded as Baymax started to speak. "The baby is in excellent health. However, his body temperature was a little low. That could make his immune system weaker and cause him to develop some kind of disease. I recommend the use of a jacket in cold days like today."

"Fluffy robot." Hiro giggled.

Tadashi looked to his brother and smiled, hugging him tighter. He was ok. Not to mention warm and comfy.

"Wait. What happened, Hiro?" He said as he put Hiro on the ground and knelt down to look at him in the eye. "How did you find Baymax? And how did you activate him?"

Hiro rubbed his hands together and looked down; like he always did when he had to speak.

"It's ok, buddy. Just tell me what happened."

Hiro took a long breath and approached Tadashi, still looking down. Their faces were inches apart.

"I wanted to find you. Dashi." He whispered. "I wan... I didn... I..."

"It's ok, Hiro. It's alright. Just tell me. No pressure."

Hiro blinked his big brown eyes and lifted his head to look at Tadashi's face. "I wan-wanted to find you. I... I came ba-back to here. Fo-Found that nice p-p-piece. I hurt m-my toe when t-that piece fell. Fluffy robot. He's warm." He said, pointing at Baymax behind him. In shame for stuttering so much, he looked down again. Tadashi pulled Hiro into a hug before standing up again with the boy in his arms.

"See? I knew you could do it! There's room for improvement, but I'm not giving up on you."

Hiro looked into his brother's eyes and smiled before wrapping his arms around Tadashi's neck.

"Dashi."

Tadashi's friends went 'aw' with that scene. Tadashi tapped Hiro's back before putting his brother on the floor again. He walked up to the highest shelf and found the gun. He grabbed it and gave it to Wasabi.

"I suppose we can work on it now?"

"Sure. Just let me go to our lab and turn off my plasma before someone walks into it."

"Let's go. We're going to solve this!" GoGo said as she pumped her forearm.

"Hum, can you guys go first and take Hiro with you? I want to see if Baymax is working properly. But please, don't lose him this time."

"We won't." Honey Lemon chuckled as she took Hiro's hand. "Let's go, Hiro."

"Dashi?"

"I'll catch up. Don't worry."

Hiro gave a shy smile as he followed Tadashi's friends outside. Tadashi closed the door and walked up to Baymax.

"Hey, Baymax?"

"Yes, Tadashi?"

"You scanned Hiro, didn't you?"

"I am programed to assess everyone's healthcare needs."

Tadashi sighed.

"Is he alright?"

"As I said, the baby is in excellent health. However, his neurotransmitter levels indicated he was very nervous and anxious when he was asked to speak, which is unusual for five year olds."

Tadashi nodded.

"Any advice for me there?"

"I would recommend giving the baby more opportunities to speak and never correcting his mistakes abruptly or forcing him to speak if he doesn't want to. Also, wearing a jacket in cold days like today would be a good idea."

After sighing, Tadashi smiled and gave a soft nod.

"Thank you, Baymax. Well, I'm satisfied with my care."


A cookie to anyone who can identify a "The fresh prince of Bel-Air" reference in this chapter!

Yes, I'm aware Hiro has been acting like he was a 1-3 year old instead of 5. I did that on purpose. However, I've been thinking and I agree he had been acting too childish so far. I apologize for that. I'll try to balance this from now on. And of course Baymax had to be here somehow! I love that robot.

I hope you enjoyed this! Let me know what you think.