Tadashi knew it would be hard trying to balance working, school, and caring for Hiro, he hadn't realized it would be this hard though. Many nights Tadashi found himself staying up until one or two am working on the house or homework. Fred had already found Tadashi fast asleep in his lab several times, making Tadashi start to wonder if he should just drop out of school. Fred and Professor Callaghan though firmly believed that Tadashi would figure out a balance and that he just needed to give it more time. Tadashi highly doubted more time would help him figure this out, but he did promise to wait until the end of the semester so he would.
Even if he found a balance, Tadashi feared he wouldn't be able to find nearly enough time in all the craziness to spend any time with Hiro. The few times he has managed to find time to spend with Hiro he drifted off to sleep very quickly. Though Hiro seemed to understand and didn't get very upset, Tadashi was worried that Hiro was upset by this. If he wasn't right now, Tadashi knew he would eventually.
Thankfully Hiro didn't purposefully fail or do poorly on his schoolwork, but the bullying only seemed to get worse. Tadashi feared the bullying would drive Ezra away from Hiro, instead though it only seemed to bring him closer. According to Mrs. Mathews the more Hiro got bullied, the more Ezra refused to play with anyone but Hiro. A part of Tadashi hoped Ezra would remain his friend, but another was worried about how much time they were spending together. How could he get Hiro to play with anyone else though when all the other kids treated him so poorly?
Tadashi let out a loud yawn and tried to focus on what he was working on…if he could remember what he had been working on. Tadashi glanced down at his notes to try and figure out, which only served to confuse him more. On the page he'd been writing on their where notes on improvements for Baymax, several problems for his physics homework and ideas for a project for one of his robotics class. Tadashi leaned back in his chair, thinking maybe Heathcliff was right; he needed to be working less. But how could he? Ever since the school year started more things had been breaking that needed his immediate attention.
Around three am that morning a pipe in the kitchen burst and for obvious reasons that could not wait. Tadashi couldn't fathom why Mary was in the kitchen at three am, but at least she was there to spot it and get Tadashi so it could be fixed before the house flooded. As Tadashi worked on fixing it, he could have sworn he saw Heathcliff glaring at Mary. Why he would be angry at her for finding the flood was beyond Tadashi, or maybe he was just seeing things.
Tadashi could hardly keep track of where he was supposed to be and when. On days when he had classes he had to run to his car and race over to pick up Hiro drop him off and then hurry back to school for his last class before heading back to the mansion for work and homework. It was rough; thankfully Professor Callaghan let Tadashi leave class early when needed without question which was a huge help.
Tadashi let out a groan and tried to rub the sleep out of his eyes with little success. Tadashi turned his attention back to his work and tried to riddle out what exactly he was supposed to be doing. Before he realized what was happening, Tadashi's eyelids shut and he completely lost the willpower to try and open them for several minutes.
It was so nice being able to just shut his eyes. The lab was quiet and Fred and Hiro were nowhere near him….Hiro. Tadashi's eyes flew open and sat up, frantically looking for a clock and dove for his phone. Hiro would kill him if he was late picking him up from school….Tadashi sighed in relief and slumped over when he realized he didn't have to get Hiro for another hour. The energy that had surged through Tadashi moments before quickly seeped out of him and Tadashi found himself slumping into his chair once more.
How was he supposed to stay awake long enough to drive over and pick Hiro up and get him home safely? He could barely stay awake; it was quiet and dark in his lab. Maybe if he was in the much louder and brighter lab he'd be able to stay awake. With that thought firmly in mind, Tadashi shakily got to his feet, grabbed his notebook and stumbled into the lab.
As he predicted the lab was bursting with activity as students worked throughout the lab on their various projects. Thankfully though Fred's reclining chair was wide open. Generally though people tended to give the chair a wide birth, something about Fred not showing regularly so it probably stunk? Tadashi didn't really care though and collapsed into the chair and opened his notebook to once again try and get some work done.
Tadashi tried to stay awake, but his eyes kept drifting shut. Not even the noise could keep him awake. He must have been more exhausted then he thought. Maybe it wouldn't hurt if he took a quick power nap….with that thought Tadashi shut his eyes and let himself drift off to the land of dreams.
Fred excitedly bounced into the lab after a full day of mascotting. He couldn't wait to sit back relax and just watch the students science….Fred frowned when he saw Tadashi passed out in his chair. Fred carefully moved closer, seeing the heavy bags under his eyes. Fred couldn't recall the last time Tadashi had gotten a full nights rest. To many nights in a row Tadashi had to wake up in the middle of the night or had to pull an all nighter to get everything done. It was good he was sleeping, but looking over at the clock Fred realized Tadashi needed to have left to get Hiro fifteen minutes ago. Fred started to gently shake Tadashi, but he didn't even stir.
"He passed out their little over and hour ago and hasn't moved since," Gogo said.
"Probably should let him sleep then…" Fred mumbled, carefully reaching over to raise the footrest, pausing to make sure Tadashi didn't wake up before slowly reclining the chair so he was lying mostly flat. Fred froze when Tadashi stirred, afraid he'd woken Tadashi up, thankfully he only rolled to his side before drifting off to sleep again. Smiling, Fred pulled off Tadashi's hat and gently pulled the notebook from his hands.
"Isn't Hiro out of school?" Wasabi asked, walking over to the group.
"Yea, I can go get him though," Fred whispered, gently running a hand through Tadashi's hair. As he stood to leave he heard Tadashi's phone go off in Tadashi's pocket, the phone partially sticking out of his pocket. Fred gingerly lifted the phone out, frowning when he saw it was someone named 'Hera'. The name seemed familiar but for the life of him Fred couldn't remember why. So Fred answered the phone saying,
"Hello Tadashi's phone Fred speaking."
"Oh hi umm this is Hera. Is Tadashi unavailable?" Hera said.
"Umm kind of? He passed out and I can't wake him up. He was up most of the night working on fixing an emergency pluming issue and is pretty exhausted."
"Poor thing," Hera sighed. "I was calling because I'm here at the school to pick up Ezra and found Hiro was still here." Oh yea, Ezra's mom.
"Yea I just found him and was about to head over and grab him." Fred said.
"Or since I'm here I can take him over to my house and you or him get him later," Hera suggested.
"That would be awesome! A-are you sure you don't mind?" Fred asked.
"Oh it's not a problem!" Hera assured.
"Thank you so much Hera, can you pass the phone to Hiro so I can tell him what's going on?" Fred asked.
"Of course," Hera said, "Hold on."
Fred heard some shuffling and muffled voices before he heard Hiro say, "Hi Fred!"
"Hey little buddy listen, Tadashi's not feeling good so you'll need to go with Hera okay?"
"Dashi's not feeling good?" Hiro asked, sounding concerned.
"He's really tired," Fred sighed.
"Oh…" Hiro mumbled sadly. "Can you give him a kiss for me?" Fred blushed and stammered,
"Y-y-yea of course."
"Thanks Fred!"
"No problem have fun okay?" Fred said, grinning.
"Okay bye!" Fred heard a muffled shout and Hera picked up the phone saying,
"All right well I'll take Hiro home with me and send you Tadashi the address so he can pick Hiro up whenever he wakes up."
"Sounds good!" Fred exclaimed. "And thanks again."
"It's no problem," She assured before hanging up. Grinning, Fred leaned over and kissed Tadahsi's forehead before settling down on the ground to make sure no one woke Tadashi up.
Tadashi let out a small groan and tried to cover his ears to block the noise. Why was it so loud in his room? Tadashi tried to grab his pillow to cover his ears but for some reason he couldn't find it.
"Tadashi you up?" Fred asked, momentarily confusing Tadashi before he remembered where he was. He was at his school and had fallen asleep. Why was he lying down though? Tadashi slowly opened his eyes and noticed the chair was leaned back with the footrest up.
"Sort of…" Tadashi said between a yawn, stretching his arms up over his head. Tadashi rubbing his hands over his eyes for a moment saying, "What time is it?" When Fred didn't immediately answer Tadashi glanced over at him and found he was staring at Tadashi. "Fred?"
"What?" Fred asked, shaking his head.
"Time?"
"Oh yea uh six pm…"
"Oh six…s-six!" Tadashi stammered, eyes widening in horror. "Why didn't you wake me up!" Tadashi frantically stood up and started looking for his keys.
"Tadashi-"
"I need to get Hiro!" Tadashi shouted, "Oh my G- the school is going to kill me! How could I have overslept! Oh social services is going to eat me alive and they'll ta-"
"Tadashi!" Fred shouted making Tadashi freeze. "Hera picked Hiro up. She called earlier when she realized you hadn't come."
"Oh…" Tadashi mumbled, feeling embarrassed.
"She texted you the address," Fred added handing Tadashi his phone. Tadashi glanced down and saw Hera did send him a message with an address.
"Sorry for uh freaking out…" Tadashi mumbled, rubbing the back of his neck.
"It's okay dude," Fred assured. "Hera said to get him whenever but I imagine you'd want to get him now."
"Yea thanks for taking care of that." Tadashi said.
"No problem," Fred assured. "I'll see you back home okay? Oh and before you leave, Hiro said to give this to you." And planted a kiss on Tadashi's cheek. Tadashi knew he had a ridiculous grin on his face as he walked out of the lab, but he couldn't bring himself to care.
Tadashi found it was a lot easier to follow a GPS while driving a car. Not to mention safer, of course generally in every aspect a car was safer. When he reached the address he parked at the curb and climbed out, instantly noticing the car parked in the driveway. It was nearly impossible not to notice. The car was very obviously a Junker, but the paint job was what caught his attention, bright orange with yellow patters and some parts covered with a black and white checker pattern. That was something you didn't see every day.
Tadashi made his way to the front door and reluctantly knocked, double checking his phone to see if he had the right address. Almost instantly shrill barking filled the house followed by a muffled voice saying,
"Chopper down! Down boy!" A minute later Hera pulled open the door holding a very young German Sheppard in her arm.
"Hello Tadashi! Feeling better?" Hera asked with a warm smile.
"I'm awake so I'd say so," Tadashi informed her with a nervous laugh.
"Well I'm glad. Would you like to come in?" Hera asked, stepping aside and holding the door more open.
"Oh um sure…" Tadashi awkwardly said, stepping inside. Hera then shut the door and set the dog, Chopper Tadashi assumed, down. "So um…"
"The car is my daughter Sabine's work and we didn't name Chopper. We don't know who first called him that but he will not respond to anything else. He's being trained by my husband to be a police dog."
"Oh…" Tadashi said, feeling slightly uncomfortable.
"Sorry those are usually the first two questions people ask." Hera explained.
"Ah," Tadashi said, feeling slightly less uncomfortable. "Thank you so much for taking Hiro. It helped out a lot. I really hope he wasn't any trouble-"
"No, no he wasn't at all. In fact he was a big help," Hera admitted.
"He was?"
"Yea, when he finished his homework he helped Ezra with his. Got him to finish in half the time he usually does," Hera explained with a smile. "I even checked his work and it was all correct."
"Well I'm really glad to hear that," Tadashi admitted.
"If you would like, I can bring Hiro over and watch him for a few hours after school every day." Hera offered.
"No, no thank you no," Tadashi quickly said. "I mean not that I don't trust you but, I-I can't do that to you!"
"I honestly don't mind," Hera assured. "In fact, it might help me out a lot."
"How so?" Tadashi asked.
"Like I said earlier Hiro helped Ezra get his work done faster. And no Hiro didn't do it for him I was watching them work; Hiro got Ezra to do his work with no fuss and helped him get it done right the first time. I was thinking of getting Ezra a tutor but I may have found one that he would like to work with…if that's okay with you."
Tadashi thought about it for a minute. On the one hand, it would make his life so much easier if he didn't have to leave school to get his brother. On the other he'd hate to owe someone else.
"I really don't want to trouble you…" Tadashi finally said.
"I promise it's no trouble!" Hera assured. "Getting Hiro to help with homework would be a big help honestly."
"I-If you're sure and Hiro's okay with that…" Tadashi sighed.
"I am sure," Hera assured. "Let me get the boys." Hera walked up the stairs calling,
"Hiro! Ezra! Come down please!" A few seconds later they appeared at the top of the stairs.
When Hiro noticed Tadashi he groaned, "Aww…you're here already?"
"Gee, thanks, good to see you too," Tadashi deadpanned. Hiro nervously laughed and raced down the stairs saying,
"No I love you Dashi! We were just having fun!" Hiro then wrapped his arms around Tadashi's leg.
"All right I believe you," Tadashi said with a laugh.
"Now boys, we have something we need to talk about," Hera said when she and Ezra reached the bottom of the stairs.
"Right, Hiro how would you like to come over most days and help Ezra with his homework?" Tadashi asked.
"We could do that?" Hiro excitedly asked.
"Yes but on several conditions," Tadashi warned. "You need to get your homework done before playing and no distracting Ezra while he's working. You can help him but no playing until both of you are all done. And I do not want to hear you're just letting him copy your work."
"I promise I won't!"
"Same goes for you young man," Hera told Ezra. "No playing until all homework is done and don't even think about asking to copy Hiro's work."
"Okay!" Ezra exclaimed, looking over at Hiro excitedly.
"It won't bother you having Hiro help you?" Hera asked.
"No way!" Ezra exclaimed. "He explained it better than Mrs. Mathews." Tadashi laughed and Hera said,
"Well it looks like we have a deal."
"It seems so," Tadashi said. "And if you no longer can for any reason or need me to take Ezra home just let me know okay?"
"Of course," Hera assured.
"I guess I'll see you tomorrow," Tadashi said.
"See you tomorrow," Hera said.
"Bye!" Hiro said, hugging Ezra.
"Bye!" Ezra said, waving as they walked to Tadashi's car. Tadashi wasn't sure Hera understood how much this would help him, but he knew he needed to find a way to thank her somehow.