Wow thanks for the kind reviews guys! I was so nervous about the last chapter but you guys made me feel so much better!
This next chapter is just a happy filler after the emotional storm of the last few ones. Enjoy!
[Hiro smiled at his brother, "You should sleep Dashi, we'll all be here when you wake up, Aunt Cass too. Right now just rest well so you can come back home soon okay?" Tadashi nodded and gave Baymax the permission to administer the medicine, the effects of which he started feeling almost immediately. The last thing he registered was Fred announcing that Heathcliff had picked up Aunt Cass, and Hiro climbing into his bed- what the younger brother had always done when he wanted reassurance and comfort on trying days.]
Fred, Go Go, Honey and Wasabi smiled as they glanced over at the two sleeping brothers, with Baymax dutifully watching over his two most important patients.
"I still can't believe this, I mean Tadashi's alive? After we finally started to get move on from everything," Go Go broke the silence.
Wasabi nodded, "It's weird yes, but I am incredibly grateful. Like a few months of awkward readjustment is nothing compared to having to live without him forever."
"Especially for that little guy," Honey cooed over their youngest. "He took it so hard, I'm beyond happy that he has his big brother again."
Fred remained in thought for a while "...So what do you think Tadashi's power will be? Will he take charge of Baymax? Then what will Hiro have? This is our origins 2.0 people!"
"Dude, you do know that Tadashi can barely walk right now right? I think we'll have more than enough time to think things through before our 'origins 2.0'"
"Well, yeah, but we gotta start planning now so that we can-"
The sound of a crash interrupted Fred's future planning, and the four of them turned around to see Hiro, who had already been precariously on the edge of Tadashi's bed, sprawled on the floor. But as always, Baymax was there first before any of them could react.
"You have fallen," the robot observed, and flashed his pain scale on his stomach screen, "On a scale of one to ten, how would you rate your pa-aaiin." The robot's voice dropped to a lower pitch, which immediately made the human members of the teams wince in worry.
Hiro ran up to Baymax, trying to support his now slumping frame. "No no no, stay focused buddy. Try to stay focused. Do you want to deactivate until Aunt Cass brings your charger? I... I'm satisfied with my care."
"Nooo this is funnn. We robbed a bank today!"
Everyone ran to shush the bot. "Buddy, hey Baymax, we stopped a bank robbery today remember? We didn't do the robbing."
"WEEEE ROBBED A BANK TODAAAYYY!" The robot blisfully ignored Go Go.
"No Baymax, keep it down. Keep it-" Baymax stumbled onto Tadashi's bedside drawer, sending his patient files and medication scattering on the floor, which Fred and Honey hurridly tried to clean up before the doctor came in, but they were too late.
"What's going on here? I'm happy that you guys are all reunited, but please keep it down!"
"Sorry doctor, we have a slight problem with our robot. We'll get him under cont-urgh control. Don't... don't worry," Wasabi struggled to answer as he desperately manhandled (robot-handled?) Baymax away from the machines surrounding Tadashi. The doctor looked unsure, but closed the door and went off, not wanting to be involved in whatever was going on inside the room.
"Fred how far out are Heathcliff and Aunt Cass? The longer Baymax stays like this the worse he gets."
"Can't we just let him, you know, run out of battery?"
"You do not want to know what happens just before he runs out of battery Fred. And certainly not in an enclosed room filled with sensitive equipment," Hiro squeezed his eyes shut as he tried to forget the absolute disaster that happened when he had accidentally left Baymax activated in the garage overnight.
"Smiley..." Baymax glanced down at his pain scale which was still displayed on his chest, "Hairy baby?"
"Sorry bud, Mochi's not here."
"Baby!" the robot turned his attention to his youngest patient instead.
"Uh-oh"
"Tiiiny babyyy," he grabbed Hiro and carried him, patting his back as if trying to make an infant burp after its meal.
"Baymax put me down!" He tried to struggle out of the robot's grasp, but his grip proved too strong. "Baymax stop it before the doctor comes back and kicks us out."
"I am a healthcare Baymax. Doctors are my friendssss."
"Not if you piss them off."
"Tadashi designed me to be better than doctors."
"Eh... Yeah but-"
"I am better than AAALLLL of youuu!"
"Wait what?" Tadashi woke up to the team frantically trying to hold Baymax down and shut the robot up.
"Low battery," Baymax hunched over to Tadashi, still carrying Hiro over his shoulder, "I am healthcare, your personal Baymax... healthcare... scan complete WHEEEE,"
Tadashi nervously sat up as best he could, looking to his friends and rather helpless brother for answers. "Er guys...?"
"You really didn't think through his programming when he's on low on power. This is all you faul- ow!" Baymax lifted Hiro higher, causing the boy to hit his head on the ceiling light.
"On a pain of one to scale, how would you rate your ten!" Baymax stumbled over his words as Hiro scrambled out of his grasp. This was a fairly common occurence for the team, but Tadashi was getting more freaked out by the minute. He had worked out the programming properly right? Baymax was supposed to shut down and show the low battery signal on his screen when his power was too low for optimal functioning, not act like some... drunk person. He should've listened to Hiro and changed the batteries to supercapacitors when he had the chance. Luckily the trauma of an enclosed, low battery Baymax didn't has to last for much longer as-
"TADASHI! Oh Tadashi, oh my god you're alive I cannot believe this," Aunt Cass burst into the room, over to envelop her two nephews in a hug. Two nephews, everything finally felt so right again.
"Hey, hey Aunt Cass. I'm so sorry about all this, I had no idea-"
"Oh shush dear, none of this is your fault. I'm just so glad to have you back!" She started blubbering as she pulled Tadashi even closer.
"Where is hairy baaaaby?" Baymax started digging through the basket of food she had brought over for everyone.
"Baymax, oh lord." It wasn't like Aunt Cass hadn't had her own nightmare-ish experience with a low battery Baymax, or a few. "Hiro his charger is over there, could you?" Her younger nephew nodded and carefully led the robot back to its charging station, where he started to re-inflate and became sane again.
"Hello Aunt Cass and fake Kabuki-man," Baymax never grew out of the nickname he had christened Heathcliff with during their initial training days, but Heathcliff didn't seem to mind too terribly, smiling and nodding at the robot in return.
"Oh right," Fred jumped up. "Tadashi this is Heathcliff, Heathcliff this is Tadashi, the guy who's pretty much the reason why we went through all the super cool training and superhero-ing to catch Callaghan." Seeing Tadash's confusion, he explained a bit more, "I'm actually kinda rich-"
"Crazy rich," Wasabi added.
"I guess you could say that, yeah," Fred rubbed the back of his neck, slightly embarrased, "And Heathcliff is my butler-slash-chopper pilot-slash-dummy villain for all our superhero simulation needs."
"Hello," Tadashi smiled politely at the man, still not too sure about everything that was going on but not wanting to seem rude, before turning back to his Aunt. "I... Well, I missed a lot of stuff huh?"
"Oh sweetheart, it's okay. There's so much more time for you to catch up on everything. How are you?"
"Oh, I think I have caught up on much more than I needed to in such a short while," he laughed nervously, "and I think I am alright?"
"Baymax?" Aunt Cass turned to the robot for more information about Tadashi's health and he repeated what he had told the group earlier, thankfully leaving out the 'you look sick' expression. "Okay, thank god you're going to be okay. I'll just go talk to the doctor on when you can come home, okay?"
"Bada-lada-lada-la," Baymax bumped the fist Tadashi didn't realise he had been making, and he jumped.
"Wha-what?"
"Fist bump. It's not a fighting thing. It's what people do when they feel excited, or pumped up." The robot quoted Hiro almost verbatim.
"You... Wow, you have learnt some new things, haven't you buddy?" Tadashi was so proud at how fast his robot was picking up and adapting to human expressions, but also couldn't help the slight pang in his heart that he had not been there to teach or witness its progression.
"Yes, I have. And perhaps when you are well enough to return to San Fransokyo and visit Fred's house, I can show you some of my fighting moves."
"Ah. Haha. Yeah. I think all of you have to have to show me your 'fighting moves'. Especially you," he turned to look at his younger brother, who innocently mouthed "What?" back, as if he wasn't the creator or leader of the latest superhero team in town.
"I GOT IT!" Fred exclaimed, making Wasabi jump and get the powdered sugar from the donut he was enjoying all over his pants, setting off his borderline-OCD, "If you could survive such a huge explosion, your power has to be like a force field or something, cos you're obviously so good at like not being injured no matter what-" he stopped abruptly as he saw the rest staring at him incredulously.
"Seriously man? I told you that we have more than enough time to think about this"
"If at all," Tadashi added. "I'm not too sure about this whole superhero thing, or how safe it is."
"But Dashiii," Hiro whined, knowing full well that his older brother would likely do everything he can to stop them from flying again, even if it meant re-programming Baymax to ignore Hiro's commands. "We're clearly safe. We survived everything Callaghan threw at us-"
"Literally. Even a car, a shipping container and, I don't know, like entire chunks of a building."
"- exactly. We're fine."
"Mmm," Tadashi muttered non-commitally, not wanting to start another argument with his brother just yet.
Luckily, the doctor came back in with Aunt Cass, informing them that Tadashi would have to remain in San Antohama for about another week until he was fully stabilised, and then he would be allowed to go home, all the while glancing uncertainly at the 'healthcare robot' Cass had told him about to expedite Tadashi's return home.
Hiro sensed the doctor's doubt in Baymax, and prompted the robot to show off exactly what he could do. "Hello, I am Baymax, your personal healthcare companion. I will scan you now..." Baymax recited his pre-programmed lines perfectly, without any of the improvisation he gives the ones closest to him, "Scan complete. I have detected that you are suffering from a periodic migrain and also have a non-serious epidermal bruising on your left calf."
The doctor stepped back in shock, "Y... yes, I hit it against a bench this morning. Wow you're good."
"You have been a good boy. Have a lolli... donut," Baymax improvised, taking one out of Aunt Cass's basket and passing it to the doctor who accepted it with a shaky hand.
"Okayyy, I'm going to leave now. Visiting hours are almost over too, 10.00am-5.00pm daily. You can come in anytime between those hours, and we'll see if he's up for the move in a week." he backed out of the room slowly as the San Fransokyo gang burst out into laughter as his reaction to (a fully functional) Baymax.
-One week later-
The entire gang, Aunt Cass included, were hanging out in Tadashi's hospital room as they waited for the doctor to finally give them the all-clear to take him back home, via Fred's family chopper of course. The past few days had possibly been the best in Hiro's life, with everything he had ever wanted finally in place. He and Baymax had made it a daily routine- go to school in the day, fly over (much to Tadashi's disapproval however) to visit him, fly back after visiting hours to finish up assignments and other work before repeating the process. As concerened as Tadashi was about his brother's whole superhero stint, he couldn't help but be filled with pride and joy as he listened to Hiro animatedly recount the events of school, home and everything in between, and he couldn't wait to rejoin him in his adventures.
The doctor walked in, smiling at his clipboard, "You are cleared to go home young man, just follow up at San Fransokyo Memorial for your physicals, and you will be all good."
Everyone cheered and sprung up to finally go home together, Baymax even suprising the doctor with a quick hug and another donut, before carrying Tadashi (who needs wheelchairs when you have Baymax?) out toward where Heathcliff was waiting with the chopper on standby.
"You sure you can handle him Baymax? I mean even with your armor you can only carry 3000 pounds," Hiro jabbed his older brother. Just like the old days.
Baymax blinked in confusion, "But Tadashi weighs far less than 3000 pounds."
"Thank you Baymax."
"Oh great, so you're gonna be on his side huh?"
"As much as you are my primary patient, Tadashi is my creator and therefore I owe everything to him"
"Wow. Unbelievable. And after all we've been through," Hiro huffed in (semi-mock) annoyance as the rest of the team burst out laughing.
"Well, there goes your only ally kiddo."
"Whatever."
-Later that night-
Tadashi was pleasantly suprised to see his half of the room as neat and orderly, albeit slightly dusty, as he had left it, despite Hiro's side looking like a Tomahawk missile had just hit it. "Not bad bro, you actually didn't screw anything up of mine."
Hiro sighed, despite his brother's joking tone. "I couldn't bear to lose any more of you than I already had."
Tadashi softened, walking up to his brother and hugging him tightly. "I'm so sorry kiddo. You know I would never want to put you through something like this. I didn't know-"
"Yeah," Hiro looked up with tear-filled eyes. "I know you never meant for anything like this to happen, but it hurt Dashi. It hurt so bad."
"I downloaded a database on personal loss," Baymax waddled over to the brothers, trying to cheer up the two most important humans under his care. "I hope it helped, Hiro."
"It did, thanks buddy." Hiro smiled at both his brother and his robot. "Really though, if Baymax wasn't there I don't know what I would have done."
"Glad to have been of assistance, Hiro. Also, I'm sorry to interrupt but I think Tadashi requires abundant rest to get well as soon as possible. Would you mind sleeping soon Tadashi?" The robot turned to the older brother.
"Hmmm sure Baymax, thanks." Tadashi stroked Hiro's hair to make sure he was feeling better. "You going to sleep too?"
"Just gotta finish up some assignments, I'll be right up," Hiro braced himself for the inevitable teasing.
"OH, so who's the nerd now, knucklehead?" There we go.
"You know, none of this would have happened if you hadn't tricked me into going to the nerd lab instead of my bot fight,"
"Oh so it's the nerd lab now huh, not 'your stupid nerd lab Tadashiii'," he mocked Hiro in a high pitched voice.
"I do not sound like that."
"So you'd rather be sitting on your ass in some jail cell for bot fighting than be in school?"
Although he couldn't help but be annoyed that Tadashi had been right once again, Hiro was far more relieved that Tadashi was there to be right. "Urgh shut up," he playfully hit his brother as he turned to grab his textbooks and head downstairs.
Hiro quietly entered their shared bedroom a few hours later, assuming his brother had already fallen fast asleep, after all Baymax had been deactivated and was safely in his charging station.
"G'night bro," he whispered, something he had only been saying to a photograph for the past eight months. This past week had been crazy, with the general shock of Tadashi being alive, and all the adjustments (or rather re-adjustment back to the way things had been before), but Hiro was just glad that Tadashi was back home.
"Hiro?"
"Dashi? Why are you still up?"
"I was thinking about something. I know you might not agree, but this is very important to me."
"Yeah?"
"Hiro, I want- no, I need- to see Callaghan."
- Next Chapter-
"Hey Callaghan! You got a visitor coming up soon. Sign this form to give them permission," the prison guard tossed the clipboard to the ex-villain, then turned back as he heard the sound of it clattering to the floor. "What Callaghan, did you see a ghost?"
"… yes."
"Hello, Callaghan."
To quote low battery Baymax: WHEEE! I made this chapter happier to fluff up everything after all the events of the past few chapters, hope you guys enjoyed it! I'm really excited for the next chapter, what with Tadashi meeting Callaghan and all, hope to update it asap!
Thank you so much again for everyone who reviewed/followed/favourited, I hope to see you guys again!
Buckets and buckets of love!