Tadashi woke up in a cold sweat, breathing heavily. He sat up quickly and tried to regain his breath, his chest feeling like it was constricted. He used the stomach of his tank-top to wipe away his sweat. It wasn't your fault, he reminded himself, the sliver of the moon grinning at him through the prison bars. It could have happened to anyone. You're paying time, and you should be thankful. If it wasn't him, then Baymax would have killed you.
Tadashi didn't notice the head that was hanging down from the top bunk until Hiro cleared his throat, making Tadashi jump. The older hit his head on the metal bars the held the upper bed up, and he hissed quietly in pain. Hiro stifled his laughter, looking down at his roommate. This was the first time in the week that he had been there that Tadashi hadn't slept like a baby through the night.
(Metaphorically like a baby. Not literally like a baby, for he didn't wake up and cry periodically throughout the night.)
"Everything alright there, 'Dashi?" Hiro whispered. He knew nothing about Tadashi's alleged manslaughter, and was beginning to think that either Tadashi was a psychopath that was very good at pretending he cared, or it really had been an accident and Tadashi had managed to move on. Either way, so long as he wasn't being murdered and Tadashi remained stoic throughout their stay, he didn't really care.
"Yeah," the older Hamada replied, his voice rough with sleep. "Sorry for waking you."
"Oh, you didn't wake me, don't worry about that," Hiro took that moment to jump down from the top bunk and sit on Tadashi's bed. "What were you dreaming about?"
"Nothing, don't worry about it, kid. You should really get some sleep. You've been looking really, really tired lately."
"Don't bullshit me," Hiro deadpanned, staring into Tadashi's eyes. Tadashi was going to reprimand him about his language, but then he really looked into the eyes of his little-brotherly figure. The moonlight reflected off of his big eyes, the yellow-brown skin having paled since they first met. It still had a natural glow, though, and nothing that had happened had gotten rid of the childish flicker that remained in his eyes. He was practically skin and bones, but he used his thinness to his advantage, being rather agile and lithe. His hair… his hair made him look all the more young. It stuck up at all angles, being a thick and matted mess of black strands. There were also pieces of things in his hair, like lint and cloth, a couple wires even (and he was sure that he had seen Hiro pull a pencil out of there once). Although he didn't like the terrible language that the boy insisted on using, he had to tell him what the matter was.
"First off, you know that I don't like bad language – one of the reasons that I don't speak German – but I understand that you were using it to get through to me, so I'll let it slide," Tadashi began, chuckling at his own joke that was at the expense of the German language. "Secondly… I was dreaming about the night that I killed my old professor."
No matter how many times Tadashi explained this story, it never really got easier, did it?
Hiro didn't say anything, but instead nodded for Tadashi to go on. Tadashi sighed, knowing that he was going to have to tell Hiro at some point.
"I used to go to a university – SFIT, I'm sure you know about it, seeing as you live here and all…" His voice wavered, making Hiro's eyes soften in pity. "I was in the robotics section, and I was studying medicine, but… well, something went wrong. I was building Baymax, who would be a personal healthcare robot that you could always have or whatever… and something went wrong. I don't know what, though. I really, really have no idea. He was supposed to pop up and be like Hello, I'm Baymax, what's wrong? When you said "ow" but instead it… it attacked my professor. It… it was terrible. And it killed him. So that's why I'm in here," Tadashi finished his story, having had to stutter through the end. It wasn't something that he was proud of. It wasn't something that he liked to talk about or think about, so he simply shut down a little bit, his face going pale and his hands shaking.
Hiro, lacking the means of communication to convey the pure pity that he felt towards his protector, hugged Tadashi. Really, it was just a bad hand that was dealt to him. That's the only reason that Tadashi was in there. He wasn't stupid and didn't make bad decisions the way that Hiro did. The only reason that he was there was that something bad happened to him and he had no means of amends, so because of this he went to jail.
The fact that he older was protecting Hiro made so much more sense to him sudden.
The kindness and innocence that would flash through his face on occasion was no longer puzzling.
The smiles and innocent jokes, the lack of swearing, the… everything, really. He wasn't a criminal the way that Hiro was, or the way that a majority of people in there were. He was a good person who was dealt a bad hand.
That made Hiro respect Tadashi all the more.
Tadashi curled up around Hiro gratefully, holding the younger tightly. After a couple of minutes, as a matter of fact, Tadashi fell asleep with Hiro in his arms. Hiro was not happy about this, but after a few minutes of squirming and such, he gave up and fell asleep as well.
Before he fell asleep, however, he got the blankets and pulled them over the two, nuzzling his head into Tadashi's warm chest, and quietly whispering one thing before he nodded off.
"No homo."