hi, i'm gay.
Tadashi paced back and forth through the waiting room hallway. Aunt Cass and Honey Lemon slept in the chair behind him, clearly uncomfortable. Tadashi admired how they could sleep through almost anything while he hadn't slept well since Hiro died.
Well, since Hiro was kidnapped.
Tadashi still didn't understand the whole story. He didn't know why Krei had been chasing him with a gun, or why Abigail Callaghan had been there, but it hurt his head just thinking about it. He was quite honestly furious with himself, as a matter of fact. He had sat around drinking, sulking, and isolating himself for a whole month, completely oblivious to the fact that Hiro was alive somewhere in the bustling city. He hated it. He hated that even when they had found Hiro, Tadashi watched dumbfounded as Krei smacked him in the head and shot his leg. All of it could have been avoided so easily, but all Tadashi did was watch.
It seemed all he ever did was watch.
"Hamada?"
Tadashi snapped his head up, walking nervously toward the nurse that had called the name, adjusting the extremely large coat he wore. His black torn jeans made the nurse raise an eyebrow, but not as much as his blood stained converse. He shrugged nonetheless, flipping through his clipboard.
"You're the brother?"
"Yes, sir. How is he?"
"Well...I don't have a full report-"
"Can I please see him?"
"Yes, room 564, but I don't have his papers so don't feed him or anything like that."
Tadashi didn't stick around to listen to what the nurse had to say after that, sprinting to the elevator and jamming his thumb on the button to the fifth floor. He walked through an endless tangle of hallways before finally reaching Hiro's not hesitating in the slightest to open the door.
Hiro's room was dark, just like it had been the last time they were here. He still had a window that overlooked the beautiful city. His pillows and blankets still swallowed him whole, but even more so, causing Tadashi to be even more overwhelmed with concern then he had already been all night.
Tadashi slowly approached his little brother, pulling up a chair and collapsing in it. Hiro's arm was in a cast once again, and he wore a breathing mask. He was covered in bruises as well, making Tadashi cringe. Tadashi turned his eyes to the window in the room. The sun was just now rising, though it still rained like it had earlier. The rain calmed Tadashi, and he slowly closed his eyes, warmly smiling at the sound of thunder and rain patter.
The calm didn't last long, however. Hiro stirred and opened his eyes, and Tadashi held his breath as Hiro looked around in confusion. He sat up straighter with his good arm and lifted his good hand to feel his breathing mask. He slowly removed it from his face and turned to his left, jumping at the sight of Tadashi.
"Hiro," Tadashi released the breath and swallowed hard, taking his hand. Hiro's eyes got wider and wider by the second, and he looked into Tadashi's tired eyes as he did the same to Hiro's bruised ones.
"T-Tadashi," Hiro said in a quiet, hoarse voice.
"Do you need water, Hiro?" Tadashi asked, looking around for a cup even though the nurse had specifically told him not to give his brother anything. Hiro shook his head.
"No," Hiro said, shaking his head and wrapping his good arm around his stomach. "Tadashi, what day is it?"
"Today is...Thursday. Thursday, July 24th. Why?"
Hiro gasped silently as Tadashi smiled warmly at him, putting a supporting hand on his shoulder.
"But don't worry, you're safe now."
"Tadashi."
"Everything will be okay once we know the whole story, and-"
"Tadashi."
"Maybe we can even find out who the masked guy is once and for all."
"Tadashi, listen to me, okay?"
Tadashi's smile remained and he tightened his grip on Hiro's shoulder, looking longingly into his eyes.
"Of course, Hiro. What's wrong?"
Hiro licked his lips, wrapping his arm tighter around his waist.
"I-I haven't eaten in two and a half weeks."
Tadashi's smile was now slowly but surely going away, and he took his hand away from Hiro's shoulder.
"You haven't...you weren't...what?"
"They didn't really give me any-can you please just maybe ask someone if I can have something? Maybe?"
"Oh, my- yes, Hiro, of course. Oh my god, okay, I'll go get you something nice, okay?"
"Thank you so much," Hiro said quietly as Tadashi was jogging out of the room to get Hiro a meal. He went back down the elevator to wake Honey Lemon and Cass.
"Honey Lemon," Tadashi whispered, shaking her shoulder. She woke instantly, looking at Tadashi with concern.
"What? Is everything alright?"
"I need you to go sit with Hiro in room 564. He just needs company for a little bit, yeah?"
"What-what's wrong? Why are you shaking so much?"
"He didn't eat," Tadashi said in frustration. "He hasn't eaten in nearly three weeks, so I'm going to that drive in to get him some noodles or something. Will you and Cass just go sit with him until I'm back?"
"Of course-three weeks?!"
"No time to explain, just get up there," Tadashi said, sprinting out of the hospital and to his car.
Tadashi arrived with a bowl of noodles and a glass of lemonade nearly five minutes later, bursting into the room and startling everyone in it. He rushed to Hiro's side and handed him the to-go bag, which his brother took moe than gratefully.
"Thank you, thank you, thank you, Tadashi. You have no idea how much this means to me."
Hiro dug into the bag, and Tadashi couldn't help but feel devastated at the scene.
"Yeah, of course. You don't even have to thank me, you haven't eaten in forever."
"Yeah," Hiro laughed lightly. "At least they gave me water."
They?
"Uh, Hiro, about that," Cass spoke up, leaning closer to Hiro's bed. "We need you to tell us where you've been for the past month."
"Yes, right," Hiro said, taking another bite of noodles. Tadashi pulled a chair up beside Hiro as well.
"Hiro, this past month has probably been the hardest month that our family has ever faced," Tadashi said. Hiro looked down at his bowl in guilt. "Please don't feel guilty or anything like that. But we at least deserve to know what exactly the hell happened."
"Definitely," Hiro nodded. He had already quickly finished his meal and was now sipping on his lemonade. "Okay, so I was here at the hospital for physical therapy when there was-"
"Right, we know about the explosion," Tadashi nodded. Hiro raised an eyebrow at him.
"If you wanna call it an explosion," Hiro scoffed, making Tadashi stiffen with confusion. "It was more of a masked-man-protruding-through-the-wall kind of thing."
Honey Lemon looked over at Tadashi and smirked at him. He simply rolled his eyes.
"Anyways, I was getting a sip of water when the masked man came through the wall and he took me with his-erhm, my microbots. Then he took me to what I want to guess is his office and...you know...he tied me up and all of that fun stuff. He made some phone call and then we were off into the city. He took me to Krei Tech and Krei was waiting for me there-"
"Wait, Alistar Krei is the reason all of this happened?" Cass asked in shock, gripping the armrest on her chair.
"Well, he didn't pull it off alone," Hiro said. "The masked man had apparently been planning to trade me for one million dollars with Krei."
"One million dollars," Honey Lemon whispered. Hiro nodded.
"Isn't that, like, slave trade basically?" Tadashi asked in disgust. Hiro shrugged.
"If you wanna call it that, yes, that's exactly what it was. Anyways, the masked man took off his mask, and..."
Tadashi, Cass, and Honey all leaned forward, eager to know who the man they had been trying to hunt down for two years' identity. Hiro shrunk into his pillows.
"It was Robert Callaghan."
"I knew it," Honey Lemon whispered as Tadashi and Cass covered their mouths, completely overwhelmed with the news.
"Callaghan?" Tadashi choked out. "But he-"
"If I survived that fire, so could he," Hiro said. "The night of the showcase he took my microbots, lit the building on fire, and attempted to get me to Krei but failed. He failed many other times, too."
The room went silent, and Tadashi urged for Hiro to continue.
"Anyways, so I'm at Krei Tech and Abigail Callaghan runs in with the briefcase full of Robert's money. She orders Robert to take the money and then demands that he leave the country and never come back for her. She's been working at Krei Tech for nearly two years. So she unties me and tries to reason with Krei, but he doesn't listen. So after Robert leaves with the money, I'm taken to a dark room several floors below and I don't leave for a whole month."
"Wow," Tadashi deflated in his seat, rubbing a hand over his face. "So, wait, what did you do there?"
"Krei's company was running out of ideas as well as money, so they had me invent new robots and machines for his company in the basement. Abigail liked to come in and check on me. The first week she brought me food it ended up being poisoned without her knowing, so I never got food after that. The guards liked to come down and hit me just for the fun of it. They provided me with plenty of water, luckily, and a blanket and pillow to sleep on my desk. They made me wear a white button down with a navy blue tie and dress pants, which you probably saw me wearing tonight. Yesterday Abigail came to my desk to let me know that she had devised a plan for my escape that was so bulletproof, I could have been home at the cafe by 10 o'clock last night. Obviously, the plan didn't exactly work out. I fell off the roof and broke my arm and Krei ended up following us to the docks. That's just about it, though."
"Oh, Hiro-"
"Hiro?" a nurse walked in, turning the corner and smiling at him.
"Yeah?"
"There is an Abigail Callaghan here to see you, but she's a bit jumpy-"
"Hiro!"
Abigail burst into the room, scratches all over her face. Hiro was astonished at her appearance as she rushed to his side, ignoring Cass and Honey.
"What's wrong? Are you okay?" Hiro asked.
"Krei got away," Abigail said, making Tadashi jump up in alert. "He hit me and then he left. He took off in his car. The police didn't believe a word of my story. We're screwed, Hiro! He's coming back for you, no doubt."
"Shit," Tadashi sighed, pulling his phone out.
"It all just happened so fast," Abigail mumbled, breath shaky. "But he's planning something huge, I know it. He prepared for this. For your escape."
"Maybe that's good," Hiro said, staring at his hand in thought. Tadashi turned his head slowly in Hiro's direction, anger written on every inch of his face.
"You're kidding me," Tadashi scoffed. "Hiro, this man could kill you. He could literally end your life. Are you that dense?"
"Listen to me, Tadashi," Hiro said, this time his voice was shaking uncontrollably. "I know this man a hell of a lot more than you do. He's been yelling in my face and punching me for a month. He's forced me into slave labor and starved me out. Poisoned me. Yelled at me until I was convinced I was a worthless piece of garbage and that you guys would never accept me if I faced escape. He's a monster, okay? He shot me and gave me a concussion. But I might have a plan."
Tadashi slowly sat back down, guilt overtaking him. Had he really gotten angry at Hiro and called him dense because he thought he was some stupid kid?
"Well, Hiro-well, what is it?" Tadashi asked, rubbing his hands together awkwardly.
"What if I turn myself into him?" Hiro suggested, earning immediate disapproval from Tadashi. "No, no, listen, what if I walk in with a secret camera or radio hidden on me or something? I walk in, record Krei abusing me, and I send it to you. You turn it into the police. Rescue me. Bam. Krei's facing an easy ten years in prison and bankruptcy."
"That's a nice joke," Tadashi said sarcastically, shaking his head.
"Tadashi-"
"Do you honestly think I'm gonna let you get kidnapped again when we could easily come up with something safer?"
"I'm with Tadashi," Cass spoke up, wrapping her arms around herself. "I don't like this."
"Hiro has a point," Honey Lemon shrugged. "The police won't believe us no matter what story we concoct. We need pure evidence we can give to them so that we can all step back and let them do their dirty work. Besides, Abigail still technically works there, if Krei knows she was in on that plan."
"Oh, he did," Abigail scoffed. "I can't step foot on that campus or I'll get shot."
"See, Hiro?" Tadashi said finally. "She'll get shot! What makes you think you'll be any luckier?"
"Because I made him nearly twenty million dollars this month and he knows I can make him that much in a day, too."
Tadashi stared at Hiro, jaw dropped and eyes wide. Hiro couldn't help but smirk.
"Twenty million dollars?" he muttered. "In one month...?"
"Yes."
Tadashi looked around the room, clearly more than skeptical about the entire ordeal.
"We do this under my rules, do you guys understand?" Tadashi said, eyeing everyone in the room. Hiro nodded eagerly. "If even anything goes wrong, we get Hiro the hell out of there and just stay out of it. We protect Hiro and if Krei tries to take him, he goes through us. Is that clear, everyone?"
"Yes, yes it's clear," Hiro said, a grin slowly spreading across his face.
Cass rolled her eyes, deflating in her seat and rolling her head back. Hiro shrugged, leaning toward Abigail and Tadashi.
"So, here's what I'm thinking."
"How could you possibly let this happen?!"
The Krei Tech security guards were lined up against the wall of Hiro's cell, facing Krei's wrath in the flesh. Some looked guilty, some looked unfazed. Either way, Krei looked furious.
"How could you allow your inmate to pepper spray you, Tyler?! And how could none of you hear the boy through the vents?! I chased that kid around all night and all I got was a concussion from it, you assholes! What do you have to say for yourselves, huh?"
The guards looked around at each other awkwardly, shuffling their feet around.
"Jesus," Krei scoffed, walking up and down the hallway with his hands behind his back. "What are you, toddlers? We're getting the kid back by the end of the week, or you're all fired. Is that clear?"
"Yes, sir!" the guards yelled in unison, returning to their confident facade.
"Yeah? Well, get the hell out of my sight."
One week later
Tadashi, Honey Lemon, and Abigail all worked tirelessly at the cafe bar, blueprints for the Krei Tech campus sprawled out in front of them. Abigail knew where every guard was stationed and where every entrance was, so she played a crucial part in the plan. Honey Lemon developed a chemical purse-like invention for everyone so that they would be prepared in case Krei tried anything serious during Hiro's surrender. Tadashi was basically supervising the plan and making sure he was okay with everything happening and, most importantly, that Hiro wasn't getting hurt in any way at all when they go to Krei Tech tomorrow.
"I made sandwiches!" Hiro called from the kitchen. He swung open the cafe's kitchen door, plates in his good hand as he balanced himself on his crutches.
"Hiro!" Tadashi scolded with a laugh, going to help the poor kid carry the plates. Hiro thanked him, returning to balance with his crutches and carrying himself to the opposite side of the counter where all of the blueprints were sprawled out.
"Aw, Hiro, you really didn't have to do that," Abigail chuckled, taking a bite of her meal.
"Please, it's the least I could do. After all, I got you banned from Krei Tech. And you guys are helping me out with this whole plan."
"Not like I enjoyed working with Krei anyway," Abigail shrugged. Hiro laughed again.
"Hiro, are you sure you'll be able to walk on your own tomorrow?" Tadashi asked skeptically. Hiro scoffed, waving his hand.
"I never said I could walk. I said I could limp. Fool."
Tadashi sighed, looking down at his sandwich with no interest in eating it. If Tadashi was being completely honest, the last thing he wanted to do was eat, too sickened by the thought of Hiro walking into what he clearly saw as a trap. There was no way Krei wasn't going to be armed, but he was glad he at least got to be there and that he would at least be able to protect Hiro using Honey Lemon's chemicals.
Still, though. He was beyond uncomfortable.
He shrugged nonetheless, happily taking a bite of his little brother's sandwich and smiling at him.
Honestly, what's the worst thing that could happen?
famous last words lol^^^^^