BIG BRO FRED
"What?" was all that Hiro could mutter; mouth agape and eyes as wide as that of an owl's. The teenager looked at the Robotics laboratory with confusion, disbelief and surprise; though surprise would be an understatement right about now.
Said robotics facility was currently being bombarded with water from three different directions. Brown eyes followed the smoke that seeped from outside the window of his room "My room!" he was cut off when Wasabi had raised his hand, prompting the teenager to stop.
"Don't worry," sighing, the large man lowered his hand "Only the main room caught fire," shoulders visibly slumping and face relaxing, brown eyes scanned the building once more "What caused it, anyway?" rubbing at the back of his head, Wasabi shrugged "No clue. It was a freak accident most probably,"
Placing a large hand on Hiro's shoulder, Wasabi smiled "Don't worry, no one got hurt," the teenager smiled, a little bit surprised that the large man managed to read his mind "Speaking of the others," brows furrowed and eyes flickering frantically from side to side, Hiro looked around the people who were gathered in front of the Robotics lab.
"Where are they?" still looking for his friends in vain, he asked no one in particular "Honey Lemon is restocking the chemicals," without even looking at the teenager, Wasabi started "Seems like some weird reaction overnight caused the combustion of some of her chemicals," opening his mouth and nodding slightly, Hiro got the gist of the situation.
"GoGo is helping Honey Lemon with the chemicals," with brows furrowed, Wasabi's nose perked up "Fred's probably at home," ruffling the teenager's hair as he ran towards the building "Why don't you visit him? I'll help around here first," blowing away a tuft of hair that was in the way of his eyes, Hiro groaned "Why does everybody treat me like a kid?"
Hands inside the pockets of jacket, the teenager grumpily kicked pebbles, cans, and bottles out of his way on the street. With brows furrowed that would make GoGo proud, the only feature that lessened his supposedly menacing mood was his adorable pouting "I graduated High School for Kami's sake!" mumbling something under his breath as he made his way towards Fred's mansion, Hiro continued to contemplate why literally everyone treated him like a baby.
"Master Hamada," a weathered looking man who sported formal attire and a meticulously groomed moustache lowered his head slightly "Hey, Heathcliff," smiling slightly, he removed his hands from within his pockets "Please do come in, I am sure Master Fredrick will be pleased to see you," opening one of the doors and waving an inviting hand inside, the butler's erect posture did not even let up for a second.
Excitement ran through the teenager's mind, Fred was technically the only one who didn't treat him like a kid. Tadashi would treat him like a fragile baby from time to time; and frankly, sometimes it was really weird. Hiro ran up the glistening staircase with as much force he could muster in his legs, absolutely enlivened to see the blond.
Bursting into said blond's room surprised the sole occupant of the space "Whoa, dude, you startled me there for a moment," clicking a button on his controller and casually throwing it to his side, Fred smiled as he stood up "Come on in, bro," moving to the opposite end of the room where a metallic board with various buttons lay, the blond pressed a few buttons "Cola and chips," the board slowly rose upward and seemingly disappeared into the roofing. A panel roughly the size of the one that just disappeared slowly whizzed out with a five-hundred ml bottle of cola and a bowl of chips on its surface.
"Make yourself comfortable!" clumsily hugging the bottle of cola and the bowl of chips, the blond haphazardly stepped over game cases, magazines, and discarded pieces of clothes. The teenager smiled, jumping over the couch in the middle of the room and sitting on it "You went to the lab already?" placing the food on the table in front of the couch, Fred moved towards the console and plugged in another controller "Yeah, some funky stuff happened last night probably,"
Taking as much chips as his hands could gather, the teenager stuffed it in his face and shrugged "Shom kind hoff chemical reakshun," speaking through crunchy chips, the blond couldn't help but snort at the way Hiro sounded "Yeah, that's what Wasabi told me," sitting down beside the teenager, Fred pressed on a button which prompted the recommence of his game "Let me just finish this level-" with tongue sticking out, the blond's shoulders stiffened as he dexterously pressed on the buttons of his controller.
"Whoa, is that-?" surprise had struck Hiro, effectively making some of the chips fall off of his mouth "Kinkumadoji Frontier X?" looking at the game with awe, the teenager was lost in a trance. A knowing smile crept up on the face of the blond "Yeah, pretty cool, huh?" blinking a few times, Hiro shook his head and furrowed his brows "But they only made like fifty copies of the game!" furrowing his brows even further, the teenager finally accepted that it was actually Kinkumadoji Frontier X.
Slouching in his seat, Hiro couldn't believe how Fred could have managed to even get the game- especially due to the fact that it was only released in Japan "Actually fifty-five," smiling as he finished the level, the blond quipped as he prompted the game to go back to its 'Home screen'. Selecting the two-player story mode option, Hiro smiled "Didn't know you could read Japanese," smile growing ever larger, Fred shrugged "Personally, I've always loved the Japanese bootlegs," handing the other controller to the teenager, who instantly accepted it, the blond smiled "Ready for some Kinkumadoji?"
From mid-morning up 'til late afternoon, the two played for hours on end. Briefly stopping from time to time to refill their chip bowl and cola bottles, to the utter distaste of Heathcliff, who urged them to eat something healthy for lunch, but was ultimately ignored by the two gamers. Brows furrowed, tongues sticking out and gazes glued onto the screen, the two seemed to be trapped in their own world. The clash and clang of futuristic swords on alien metal rang throughout the room; as the demonic alien Kinkumadoji screamed its profanities and sunk into the ground below, a flash of light and colourful letters of 'Victory' flashed itself on the screen.
Discarding their controllers haphazardly and abruptly standing from their seats, the two pumped their fists in the air and let out their victory cries. Doing their personalized hand shake, the blond smiled "That was some mighty fine demon slaying, Hiro-san," a grin that stretched from ear to ear graced the teenager's face "I couldn't have done it without your help, Fred-san," with both of their lips quavering, the two of them fell on the couch laughing.
Unconsciously checking on his wristwatch, Hiro's eyes widened in disbelief "It's already this late?!" wiping away a tear of mirth from his eyes, Fred prompted his console to exit the game, and displayed '6:37' in large white numbers "Whoa, you're right," quickly standing up from the couch and jumping over it, Hiro waved goodbye "Thanks for letting me play!" taking the game chip from the console and placing it inside of its casing, the blond chased after the teenager "Hiro, dude, wait!"
Running down the stairs in haste, Hiro quickly rounded the corner and made a dash for the door. Opening the door and standing in front of it, Heathcliff raised an arm, prompting the teenager to stop for a moment "Hiro, dude!" tripping on one of the steps, Fred fell downwards the stairs, raising his right arm above his head in hopes of saving the game chip "I got to go, Aunt Cass is probably worried sick right now-" standing up from the ground and rushing towards the door, the blond smiled, handing the teenager the game.
"Bu- what?" gingerly taking the game from Fred's hands, Hiro furrowed his brows in disbelief "But this game-" laughing, the blond shook his head "That game has a lot of content left to unlock," his brows furrowing even further, Hiro couldn't comprehend the act that Fred had did "But this game has only like fifty-five copies and-" cutting him off again, Fred snorted "And I've got more copies of it, don't worry,"
A bright smile slowly graced the teenager's features. Hugging the blond tightly, Heathcliff moved away from the door to give Hiro way "Thanks Fred, Heathcliff!" waving goodbye, the raven haired youth giddily rounded the corner; absolutely excited to try the game himself. Waving goodbye as well, Fred crossed his arms and leaned on the door, with Heathcliff's coughing taking his attention "But wasn't that the game that your father had mailed to you two months ago?"
"Yeah, it is," a smile softened the butler's features "I recall you being rather enthusiastic about said game," turning around to go back to his room, Fred placed both his arms behind his head "Yeah, I was. But Hiro's going to have much more fun with that than me," Heathcliff wordlessly watched his young master ascend the stairs "How you've grown, Master Fredrick," closing the door behind him, the butler started to hum, delighted at how mature his young master has grown.
"You're still wearing that?" furrowing her brows as she carefully lowered a box of chemicals on the ground, GoGo showed genuine disgust for Wasabi's sweaters "It's not that bad," pulling at the ends of her sweater, Honey Lemon giggled as she observed the shining baubles. Snorting, the engineer shook her head "Still looks like crap, though,"
"Hey, I heard that!"
A/N: Ah, the Wasabi joke will almost make it full circle