Roku: Osoraku Choodo Sutoresu

Six: Probably Just Stress

Hiro sat on his bed and continued to look out his window as he had been doing for the past hour. For some strange reason, all he could find himself thinking about was the nightmare he had the day before. It seemed so real, and he just couldn't shake the strange feeling that it was more than just a nightmare.

After his panic attack yesterday, Tadashi had insisted that he take the day off and relax. One of Hiro's rational theories was that he was just a bit too stressed out from working on his Microbot project for days without much sleep. That's probably one of the theories that Baymax would come up with.

But one of his irrational theories would be that this nightmare was some sort of warning. The voice in the dream told him to hold on to his brother, so maybe it was prophetical. Well, it was one of his irrational theories, and it sounded pretty crazy. Still, no matter how hard he tried, he still could not get over the feeling that the nightmare was there for a reason, as insane as it sounded.

He could see as the people down below drove to their destinations in the huge wave of traffic. That was the main reason Tadashi always drove a moped, because he could get to his destination quicker, which came in handy with swooping in at the last minute to save Hiro from getting beat up by bot fighters. Hiro stopped looking out the window and just retreated to his bed. He couldn't really help but lie there, still wondering about that nightmare.

He remembered the smile on Tadashi's face and the tone in his voice. It was calm and collected, like the fire wasn't even happening. Hiro wanted to smack his brother in that moment, because while he was scared and confused, Tadashi was just acting like nothing bad was happening, and it just made Hiro more scared and afraid. It seemed incredibly stupid of him to run into that fire the way he did. He just left Hiro alone, like it was nothing.

He knew that it could never happen in real life though, because he knew how much Tadashi loved him, and he knew, no matter what, that Tadashi would always be there for him and there was nothing that could change that. He wanted to take a nap right about then, but something inside him told him that falling asleep was a bad idea.

He just continued to lie there for some time, until the door opened and his big brother walked in. He noticed that Hiro seemed a bit out of sorts ever since the nightmare from yesterday evening. He tried his best to cheer him up and make him feel better, but nothing seemed to be working. Still, he put on a smile and spoke.

"Hey Hiro, how are you doing?"

Hiro shrugged. "I don't know. I just can't stop thinking about that nightmare."

Hiro had never actually told Tadashi what his nightmare was about, except for the fact that it had fire in it. "Oh. Well, do you want to talk about it?"

Hiro sat up in his bed. "No, I'm okay, really. I think I just have a little too much stress is all."

Hiro could see that there was an idea brewing inside his brother's head. This suspicion had been proven correct as a smile appeared across his brother's face.

"Come with me, I want to take you somewhere."

Hiro raised an eyebrow. "Take me where?"

Tadashi ruffled his little brother's hair. "You'll love it Otouto, I promise."

Hiro stood up. "Alright then, let's go." Tadashi smiled and the two walked off downstairs and towards Tadashi's moped.

It had taken a good fifteen minutes, but the Hamada brothers had eventually arrived at their destination.

"Where are we exactly?" Hiro asked as he stepped off the moped.

Tadashi motioned for Hiro to look around. "See for yourself little brother."

Hiro took a look around and his eyes widened. He was staring at the very same park that he and Tadashi used to come to when they were younger. "Whoa, I haven't been here since forever."

Tadashi smiled in victory. "Remember when we used to come here and play by the cherry blossoms?"

Hiro smiled. "How could I forget? It seemed like only yesterday."

Tadashi smiled and ruffled his little brother's hair. "Come on, do you remember where our favorite tree was?"

Hiro nodded. "Yeah, down by the river."

Before Tadashi knew it, Hiro had taken off towards the tree. He stopped running and looked back at his older brother.

"Come on Tadashi, hurry up. You're so slow."

Tadashi smiled wide and he thought that he could actually see five year old Hiro standing in front of him. "Alright, relax, I'm coming."

Tadashi walked after him and watched as Hiro ran towards their favorite cherry blossom tree.

The second Hiro touched the tree he shouted. "I win!"

Tadashi smiled and joined Hiro at the tree. "I let you win, obviously."

Hiro scoffed and sat down. "Whatever."

Tadashi playfully rolled his eyes and sat down next to his brother. A few minutes went by and Hiro found himself staring at the lake, lost in his thoughts. Tadashi waved a hand in front of him to try and gain his attention.

"Hey bonehead, are you there?" That caused Hiro to break free from his trance.

"Oh, uh, yeah, I'm fine, I just got lost for a second."

Tadashi's big brother instincts were telling him that Hiro was still thinking about his nightmare. Tadashi leaned up against the tree and closed his eyes for a second. As he did, he could feel the weight of something pressed up against him. He opened an eye and saw his little brother resting his head on his chest, looking down at the ground and trying to avoid eye contact.

"Tadashi, can I ask you a question?"

Tadashi put his arm around him. "Of course Otouto, you can ask me anything."

"I already know the answer but…it's just that…you're not gonna leave me are you? Like mom and dad."

Tadashi was a little taken aback by this question. "Of course not. I'll always be here for you, you know that."

"But what if- What if one day, I wake up and- and you're not there? What would I do then?"

Tadashi kissed Hiro on the head and hugged him even tighter. "You don't have to worry. I'm here, and I always will be."

Hiro looked up at him with his big brown doe eyes that could get away with anything. "Promise?"

Tadashi smiled. "I absolutely promise." Hiro smiled and wiped away a tear that had fallen.

"I'm sorry, I don't know what came over me lately. I've just been thinking a lot lately about things I probably shouldn't and…I don't know."

Tadashi gave him a reassuring smile. "It's alright Hiro, and just know that I'm here for you if you ever want to talk."

Hiro smiled back at him. "You always are."

Hiro was so caught up in everything that was going on, he forgot how tired he was. He wanted to take a nap earlier, but he was just too afraid of the nightmare coming to him again. But he figured that if he was with Tadashi, he would be just fine, so he closed his eyes and slowly drifted off to sleep. Tadashi didn't notice this till later, when he heard a light snoring. Tadashi smiled and figured that he must be incredibly tired. Tadashi kissed him on his head.

"Sweet dreams, Hiro." After his little brother fell asleep, Tadashi was starting to feel tired as well, so he closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep, holding his tired little brother.