A middle-aged, almost redheaded woman paced between her truck and the front of the police station, biting her thumbnail. She'd picked up the phone in the middle of beat poetry night, thinking it was just another customer. Her stomach had dropped into her shoes when she heard who had been detained that night. Hiro would be alright since he was still a minor and these things weren't taken as seriously, but Tadashi? What would happen to his scholarship, his public record? Were they going to make him serve time for this? Were they going to make-a door banged shut behind her. She spun around when she heard them and grabbed both boys in a hug. "Are you guys okay? Tell me you're okay."
"We're fine," Hiro muttered under the hug.
"We're okay," Tadashi assured.
Aunt Cass pulled back and examined Hiro. "You're really fine? Your braces aren't broken or anything?" She reached down to check the contraptions she'd never quite understood no matter how many times Hiro and Tadashi tried to explain them to her.
Hiro rolled his eyes and pushed her searching hands away. "Yes, I'm completely fine."
Tension released from her shoulders at the words and she sagged against the two brothers. "Oh good." Her face darkened and she shouted, "Then what were you two knuckleheads thinking!?" She pinched them by the ear, tugged them into the cab of her truck, and proceeded to lecture them all the way home while they held their still stinging ears.
She was just wrapping it up when they pulled around the corner and slowed in front of the café. "For ten years, I have done the best I could to raise you." They got out of the truck and headed for the small café, leaving the bike in the back to be put in the garage later. "Have I been perfect? No! Do I know anything about children? No! Is my house wheelchair friendly? No!" The brothers flinched at the reminder of the days before the braces. "Should I have picked up a book on parenting? Probably!" Aunt Cass finished unlocking the doors but didn't go in. "Where was I going with this? I had a point."
"Sorry," Tadashi said.
"We love you Aunt Cass." Hiro said. He really just wanted her to calm down at this point.
She whipped around. "Well I love you too," The café chef almost yelled in his face as she finally got the door open. Hiro rubbed the back of his head sheepishly and looked up at his older brother. Tadashi glared at him. They walked into the café and up towards their rooms as Aunt Cass bit into a donut from one of the display cases as she bemoaned the cancelation of poetry night.
Hiro escaped from his stress-eating aunt as quickly as possible and skittered up the stairs, plugging himself into the computer. Tadashi followed and hung his bike helmet up on one of the pegs on the wall. "You better make this up to Aunt Cass before she eats everything in the café," Tadashi said. Hiro answered absentmindedly. "And I hope you learned your lesson, bonehead."
"Absolutely," Hiro answered spinning his chair around and hiding his computer screen from view.
Tadashi peeked around his brother's fluffy hair and almost rolled his eyes at Hiro's predictability. He reached over and closed the bot fighting map. He ignored his brother's pout and said, "Maybe we should go down to the garage, see if there's anything new we can work on with your braces. You know, instead of you charging off and worrying Aunt Cass about bot fighting again."
Hiro rolled his eyes. "She doesn't know it's bot fighting," he tried to appease, but Tadashi crossed his arms. Big bro wasn't buying it. He let himself slump in the chair. "And the parts I need will just be kicking around in some drawer," he scoffed. "Hardware stores don't exactly stock solar panels."
Tadashi almost rolled his eyes, but they paused on the letter he'd gotten from his university. Maybe… "Well," he said, walking towards the stairs, "maybe we should go and check. I think they're having a sale right now." He lifted the passenger helmet from its hook on the wall and tossed it towards his little brother.
Hiro caught the object and glared at his brother with a considerable amount of venom. "I don't have the cash." And whose fault is that, he griped to himself.
But Tadashi just shrugged and headed downstairs, helmet tucked under his arm. The younger Hamada rolled his eyes and walked down after his brother. He supposed he could follow along. A few minutes later he regretted it when his brother's scooter whizzed past the sign with his university's name on it. "What are we doing at your nerd school? Hardware store's that way!" He gestured behind him. Tadashi had whipped right past the building.
Tadashi parked in front of the snazzy glass building labeled 'Robotics Lab' and commented, "Gotta grab something."
Okay…Hiro thought as he slouched along through the hallways of the school's robotics center. I guess maybe he wanted to show me a particular part or something, maybe. "Is this going to take long?" He moaned to his brother.
Tadashi grinned. Sometimes his brother was just too cute. "Relax you big baby, we'll be in and out." If he isn't struck by awe the second we walk through that door. Wasabi alone should be enough to get him interested. Honestly, he could have had his brother hooked if he'd just shown him the amount of supplies they were allowed to order for their projects. Honey Lemon might spend her research budget on chemicals, but his went into machinery that you couldn't get at your average hardware store. The fact that Professor Callahan would be showing up soon would just be to cement Hiro's interest in the school.
So here's the third bit. I'm trying to write it according to the scenes in the film, but it's hard because some of those are shorter, and while writing this week I realized that, in order for this whole thing to work, the story needs a complete overhaul. I mean, the catalyst for everything in the original was Tadashi's death, so how does it work if I keep him alive? I did come up with something, though. Can't wait to show it all to you! Please Review!