Good Night

Hiro sighed deeply, stretching his arms high above his head. He was bored. Extremely bored.

He looked at his computer screen with disinterest. A notification for a nearby bot fight sounded, but he ignored it. After all, he had promised him he wouldn't go to anymore…

Scooting himself to the side to look out his window, he peered out, hoping to see something interesting. Nothing. Just the same crowd of strangers. All walking around, busy with their own issues. How boring.

"I'm bored," Hiro announced, leaning back in his chair. Yes, he did realize that there was no one else in the room with him, but what could he say. He was so head bangingly bored.

He looked to the other end of his room. Sadness overwhelmed him when he saw the only tidy area of the room. A neatly folded cardigan rested on top of the blanket.

Hiro sighed again, casting his eyes over his own messy area. Clothes were strewn all over the floor. The bed was messily made, blankets full of wrinkles. Books were carelessly thrown around, some on the bed, some on the floor. The only real way you could describe it was that a tornado had ripped through just that section of the room.

Hiro heard distant laughing from downstairs. He smiled to himself. Aunt Cass must be having a busy time in the café, working by herself. He wished he could help her, but he really couldn't. After all…

A bell rang. Signaling that someone had just walked through the front door. He heard his aunt exclaim something happily. Then footsteps up the stairs.

"Oh, good he's home!" Hiro exclaimed out loud. He turned in his chair and waited excitedly.

The door opened. His brother trudged in, dropping his bag heavily on the floor.

"Tadashi!" Hiro called happily, waving his arms wildly at his older brother.

Tadashi looked up at him and smiled. "Hey, little bro," he laughed back. Walking over to Hiro's side of the room, he chuckled and muttered, "You made another mess in your room, huh bonehead," as he picked up all the clothes strewn around. "Aunt Cass and I just cleaned it up, too."

"It's not my fault," Hiro scoffed, watching his brother clean. "If the whole world were neat freaks like you guys, then there'd be nothing left to clean."

Tadashi chuckled and finished picking up his younger brother's laundry. Hiro watched him as he moved back to his own side of the room. "So," Hiro babbled happily. "Mrs. Matsuda came by today." Tadashi was busy taking out all his books from his bag. "She's wearing way too revealing clothing again," he laughed, holding his stomach. "I mean, I understand wanting to feel young, but-"

Tadashi's phone rang, cutting Hiro off. He pressed his phone against his ears and muttered, "Tadashi speaking," as he turned on his laptop.

Hiro huffed. After a whole day spent in a boring room, he expected some time with his older brother. Not just to get pushed off.

"Oh, hey guys," Tadashi said cheerfully. Hiro immediately perked up. It must be Tadashi's friends from school. He only met them once, but they were nice people. After all, they helped him get into SFIT.

"Yea, no change," Tadashi replied heavily. "I'm about to go check right now actually." Hiro heard someone say something back, then Tadashi said, "Yea, I'll meet you guys after, 'kay?" His brother hung up and closed his laptop. Getting out of bed, he grabbed his rain jacket at looked at Hiro. "I'll see you in a bit, little bro," Tadashi promised, then walked out the room.

"No, wait," Hiro scrambled after him. "I'll go with you!" he said cheerfully as he caught up with his older brother at the stairs.

At the bottom of the stairs in the café, Aunt Cass approached them happily.

"I'm heading out for a bit, Aunt Cass," Tadashi told her. "I'll be back in a few hours."

Sadness flashed by her eyes for a split second, before a bright smile appeared on her face. "Of course!" she chirped. "Don't be too long, sweetie!" She gave him a bone-crushing hug and kissed him on the cheek. Tadashi laughed and waved as he exited the café.

"Sorry, Aunt Cass, gotta run, love you!" Hiro said quickly, running after his brother. He didn't want to be left behind because his aunt needed to give him hugs and kisses.

On the street, Hiro blinked at how gray it was. Dark clouds were gathered over San Fransokyo. The strangers that he had seen from his window had begun to bring out their umbrellas. Rain wasn't uncommon in San Fransokyo. In fact, they were known for their rather wet weather. The citizens of the rainy city usually always had to have an umbrella with them. That or get rained on.

Hiro wrinkled his nose as a big, fat drop fell from the sky and landed on his face. He didn't appreciate the water that was now cascading down from above. In his haste to follow Tadashi he hadn't had time to grab an umbrella. And nether had Tadashi.

Instead, his older brother simply turned up the collar of his rain jacket and continued walking down the street. Although discouraged by the rain, Hiro still followed closely behind him, ignoring the rain that fell. The black umbrellas from the walking passerby just made the atmosphere even more depressing.

A few blocks in silence later, Hiro asked, "So, how was your day?"

No response.

"Mine was great," Hiro continued. "I came up with a few different inventions. There's this one that I thought of that could help Aunt Cass bake cookies faster, but I couldn't figure out the coding…"

Tadashi just sighed, his breath swirling in the cold air. Hiro continued following him, completely ignoring the fact that he was now completely soaked. His shirt stuck to his skin and his hair was plastered over his face. Tadashi would laugh and say this was the first time he'd ever seen Hiro's hair not fluffy and poofed out as it usually was.

"I'm sure you can think of some coding for that," Hiro continued happily. "If I tried I'd end up catching the kitchen on fire… again… We can work on it together!" he exclaimed happily. "Well, you know… after…"

Tadashi stopped walking. Hiro had to stop himself abruptly to keep from running into his older brother. Tadashi sighed. "Well," he smiled sadly. "Here we are."

"Here we are," Hiro replied quietly, looking at the main entrance of the San Fraansokyo general hospital.

Tadashi let out a deep breath and walked towards the hospital.

"You don't have to go in," Hiro whispered.

Tadashi shoved his hands into his jacket pockets as the doors slid open.

"It just makes you sad when you go in," Hiro insisted, following after his brother urgently.

Tadashi laughed at something the nurse said as he signed the visitor's log.

"It's fine, honestly," Hiro jogged over to Tadashi. "It's not that bad."

Tadashi walked to the elevator and went in. The door closed. Hiro didn't follow.

The steady beeps of a heart monitor were the only sound in the room. The sterile white room was dimly lit, only the lamp by the bedside lit. After all, the patient was supposed to be resting.

"Hey, knucklehead," Tadashi said quietly, leaning forward on the stool he was sitting on. "Doctor's said no change today, but they said you responded to some treatment earlier. Of course, they said not to get any hopes up, but who knows… maybe you'll wake up soon."

His little brother was tucked under the white sheets of the hospital bed, an oxygen mask strapped over his face. An IV cord was attached to his hand, the sound of the dripping of the fluids inside the bag covered by the beeping of the machine by the bed.

It pained Tadashi to see his little brother like this. He was always so full of life, jumping around and showing his inventions to whoever was willing to listen. Now, he was just… dead. Not physically, of course. But he might as be. Confined in a bed. Trapped in a coma.

Tadashi closed his eyes, and all the events of that night came flooding back at him.

"The exhibition hall is on fire!"

"My microbots!" Hiro gasped. He ran towards the exhibits, not caring that the building was now up in flames.

"Hiro, no!" Tadashi grabbed his younger brother's arm just as the boy ran up the first two steps. "It's too dangerous!"

"No, Tadashi, you don't understand!" Hiro jerked his arm away from his brother's grasp and turned to look at the older boy in panic. "If I don't get them back, all our hard work would've been wasted!" Before Tadashi could stop him, the boy ran into the flames, disappearing in the red and orange licks of fire.

"Hiro, no!" Without a second thought, Tadashi charged after him.

But it was too late.

Tadashi was thrown back by a powerful blast as the exhibition hall exploded. Debris rained down from the sky, pelting him and singeing through his blazer. But he didn't care. Horrified, he looked at the entrance of the building.

Flames roared into the night sky, sending an ugly dark plume of smoke up into the air. Ash rained onto the ground, scattering around him. "No…" Tadashi gasped, weakly stumbling to his feet. "N-no…" Prepared to run back in, he was held back by two people. They grabbed his arms and yelled something into his ear. He briefly heard them say that it wasn't safe, and that the fire department was on its way.

But Tadashi didn't care.

Not at that moment.

"HIRO!"

Tadashi sighed and rubbed his face wearily. "I'm sorry," he choked out into his hand, unable to look at his brother's still form. "I was supposed to protect you… It was my job as your older brother to protect you!" A tear slid down his face before he could stop it. He let out a shaky breath and closed his eyes. They found Hiro after the firefighters finally subdued the flames enough that they could go in and look for survivors. The kid had barely made it past the entrance before the blast threw him forward. Apparently he must've hit his head on something, because the paramedics at the scene had quickly diagnosed him with a severe concussion along with a rather large cut on the back of his head, and several second and third degree burns. They were worried because he wasn't responding to treatment at the scene, and he was losing blood fast. They rushed him to the closest hospital, San Fransokyo General, and told the Hamada family to hope for the best. A few hours later, the doctors came out with the news. Hiro had fallen into a coma.

Aunt Cass's scream of anguish echoed through the halls that night.

Hiro stood behind Tadashi as his brother sighed once again. He didn't say anything. He couldn't say anything. He knew Tadashi blamed himself for what happened that night, but that wasn't true. "Sorry," Hiro finally whispered. "I've replayed that night over and over again in my head, and if I could change anything, it would be to stop myself from going into that stupid fire." He walked over to Tadashi and placed a hand on his brother's shoulder. Tadashi moved a little at his ghost of a touch, but otherwise stayed still. "Sorry…" Hiro whispered again. "I'm so sorry…"

A tall, pale woman appeared besides the two brothers as they mourned, each for each other. She placed a gentle hand on Hiro's shoulder. He looked up slightly to look at the woman he had only seen from pictures. The woman that Tadashi and Aunt Cass had told him repeatedly was his mother.

"Have you made your choice?" she asked gently, looking at her youngest son lovingly.

"Yea," Hiro murmured, looking back at his comatose body. "I've decided."

He moved back to his brother's side and carefully kissed the side of his face. Of course, Tadashi didn't react. How could he? He couldn't feel it. "Good night, Dashi," Hiro whispered. "I'll see you around."

Sorry guys... TvT I was gonna update like... last month but I got super sick... then i had to travel and it was just one busy nightmare -.-

So here's a temporary update! The rest of my stories should be updating soon as well! Sometimes this week if everything goes right haha...

I was gonna make this a one-shot and end it on a terrible cliff hanger but I decided to make this a two shot instead hehe

Just gonna have to wait till the second half gets added xD

Enjoy this temporary update! Again, super sorry about the slow updates -.-" I'll be sure to blow you guys away with a better story soon!