Author's Note:

This is basically chapter 2 in Tadashi's point of view. It took forever to write until I was pleased with it. Your comments are appreciated, and I hope you continue to comment your feedback.

Something was wrong. But you couldn't place what it was exactly. You were curious and growing concerned, but maybe you were overthinking it.

Your name is Tadashi Hamada and your little brother has been acting strangely since you came to bed last night.

You remember actively working on part of your robotics project, a new upgrade for Baymax, when you absentmindedly glanced at the time on your laptop. It was nearing three and you still had school in the morning. You groaned at your own carelessness and began shutting all your equipment down.

The house was quiet, and you cold faintly hear Cass snoring in her room and Mochi prowling around. Hiro should definitely be asleep by now, especially since he hadn't been up to his usual nightly escapades.

You were so glad Hiro decided to attend college with you, and a dopey grin made its way onto your face. You were able to keep a proper eye on him practically the whole day now, and that gave you some much needed relief.

You absolutely hated leaving your little brother to fend for himself during the day, and there was only such much you could do to keep him busy in the evenings before he snuck around you to go bot fighting.

Now, you got to be with him all hours of the day. You went to school together in the mornings, sat close by in the classes you shared, and spent hours after school in the lab working on different projects. Then you would go home, eat dinner with Aunt Cass, and help each other with homework late into the night.

((All his time was spent with you and you wouldn't have it any other way. You hated the thought of sharing him with anyone. You were always selfish when it came to Hiro.))

Hiro was kept too busy to even think about bot fighting, and for that you were grateful. You know he missed it, but you knew he was better off using his time for school. But most importantly, you knew he was safe.

You hated the thought of your small, vulnerable little brother by himself out on the streets. There was no telling what could happen to him. He always came back to you relatively unharmed, but you were so afraid that would change one day.

You made sure all the lights were off and the house and café were properly locked up before heading upstairs. You heard Aunt Cass gently snoring from down the hall and…Was that …sniffling?

You stopped on the stairwell to listen better, but it was gone almost as soon as you heard it. It was probably Mochi, getting into things she wasn't supposed to.

You quietly opened your door and saw Hiro cocooned in a pile of blankets in the middle of his bed. You must have woken him up when you came in because you saw the blankets shift the tiniest bit where his head was.

"Go back to sleep, Hiro. It's just me." You went and affectionately riffled his hair and you felt him tense under your hand. That was definitely unusually. He usually swatted you away or even leaned into your hand if he was tired enough, but never tensed up. You frowned at his uncharacteristic behavior, but let it be for the moment. It was probably nothing, and even if it wasn't, it was too late to properly deal with it.

You tuned on the lamp by your bed and went to close the divider when you saw Hiro's face barely peeking out from under the mound of blankets. You couldn't see much, but it was enough to startle you.

From what you could make out, Hiro's eyes were red and swollen. Fresh tear tracks ran down his cheeks and they glittered from the dull light from your lamp.

You're first thought was what could have upset your little brother so much that he was crying, which he hardly did in the first place?

You had been so wrapped up in your work lately; you haven't been paying much attention to him. You had been down in the garage for hours, since you both got home at 6. It hadn't even crossed your mind to check on Hiro the entire time. How long had he been sitting up here crying by himself?

But why hadn't he come to you for help or reassurance? You were always happy to hold him and try and make him feel better. It made you feel useful as a big brother, that you weren't failing him.

((You're an awful big brother. You don't deserve him.))

But apparently you were failing him. He would rather cry by himself under a mound of blankets then go to you.

But what really unnerved you was how Hiro looked at you. There was such distrust and fear in his eyes. Never in your entire life had you given Hiro reason to look at you in such a way. What reason did he have to look at you that way? What could you have possibly done that was so horrible, that your little brother sobbed his heart out?

((He knows. He knows how you look at him when you think he isn't paying attention. He thinks you're a terrible, depraved man.))

You wanted to scoop him into your arms and make all his pain and hurt go away, but you didn't want to risk upsetting him even more. You inferred by how he warily watched you get ready for bed that he didn't want you anywhere near him.

You grudgingly decided to let him have his space for the night. You left the divider half open, in case he needed you, and you crawled into your bed. You didn't let yourself drift off to sleep until you heard Hiro's breathing even out.

~.~.~.~.~

When you awoke the next morning, you were surprised to see Hiro was already up. You usually had to drag him out of bed, and Hiro was lucky if he got up half an hour before you both had to leave. He was never up before you, unless you pulled an all-nighter and crawled into bed at six in the morning.

He was just sitting there, leaning on his headboard, unmoving with blank eyes.

You stepped out from behind the divider with what you hoped was a warm smile and a nonthreatening stance. "What are you doing up already?" you asked as you glanced him over.

His entire demeanor seemed to change. His eyes lit up, his posture improved, and he gave you one of his infamous snarky smirks as he answered, "I don't know. I just got up early today is all." But everything still seemed off. The blankness was still there, it was just muted, and he answered too quickly. His entire demeanor seemed like a great imitation of himself. But even the greatest imitations can't compare to the real thing.

He looked so pale and small in his bed. Maybe he wasn't feeling so well. You didn't want Hiro Straining himself at school today, especially in the lab with all sorts of dangerous equipment.

"You feeling ok, Hiro? You're not getting sick are you? You look kinda pale." You moved a hand to cup his face when his eyes went wide and he harshly smacked your hand away.

"No, I'm fine. You're always worrying over nothing Tadashi." he said matter-of-factly. Why was he so against you touching him? ((Because he knows how you feel about him. It's disgusting. You're disgusting.))

"Are you sure? I can have Baymax scan you if you're-"

"NO!" he shouted. You were shocked and put out by the outburst. "No," he replied, softer. "I'm fine. Go start getting ready or we're gonna be late."

You gave him one last wary glance before you went to finish getting ready for the day. There was definitely something wrong, but you couldn't place it exactly. Hiro hadn't hidden anything from you in years, and you didn't have a clue how to approach this without making things worse.

Overall, Hiro looked fine. His eyes were still kinda red-rimmed, but that was expected. You refrained from commenting on it, even though it was killing you inside. You didn't want to scare him, or make him feel pressured into telling you anything. He always came to you when he was ready to talk.

Maybe you were making this into a bigger deal than this was. Hiro is almost 15 years old. You knew he wouldn't always want to depend on you and let you take care of him, he's too independent. But you had hoped for another couple of years at least.

He was probably upset at some trivial thing, and you were overreacting. But Hiro hadn't cried in years. He hadn't cried when he broke his arm when he was six and in his experimenting with gravity phase. He hadn't cried when he was eight and accidentally locked himself in the basement, and he was too short to reach the light switch. He hadn't even cried when the other kids gave him a hard time in school for being the youngest in the class.

The last time you remembered seeing him cry was when you left for a two week science camp in middle school. His heartbroken sobs played in your mind the entire bus ride to the camp. He cried again when you came back, and he clung to you for days before you could convince him you weren't leaving again.

When you were done getting ready, you returned to find Hiro sitting on his bed, a pile of clothes next to him. You smiled at his adorable bed head, and was that you're shirt? He hadn't slept in your shirts for years, since he was about 11, when he first started high school.

You would never show it, but you loved when he wore your clothes. The way he drowned in them was just adorable. The sleeves hung past his fingers and the shirt ended right above his knees. ((A possessive part of you liked seeing him your clothes because he was yours. It was like he was acknowledging that when he wore your clothes around the house. ))

As soon as you entered the room, Hiro shot up and strode past you to the bathroom. Your gaze followed him until he shut the door. You felt your eye widen at what you saw and your concern and worry just seemed to implode inside you.

Hiro was limping.

He tried to make it as unnoticeable as possible, but he could never trick you. His movements were too stiff and he was walking much slower than he usually does. He hid the imbalance between his steps well, but it was still there.

After keeping such a careful eye on him all these years, you knew all his little mannerisms and physical quirks. He was hurt, there was no telling how badly, and he was attempting to hide it from you.

Was this why he was crying last night? Was he in so much pain and was too afraid to go to anyone about it? You knew if he went to Baymax, the medical robot would alert you immediately, and he obviously didn't want you to know.

The house was too quiet without Hiro in it, but you were so wrapped up in your project, you paid no mind to it. You should have noticed. Hiro is so precious to you and he should always be your first priority. After he found the trackers in his clothes, you told yourself you'd watch him better, make sure he was safe. And you failed.

It's your fault he's hurt.

If you had taken care of him properly, like you always should have, Hiro would be fine right now and not trying to hide things from you. He was probably at another bot fight last night and got hurt in some way. He probably didn't want you to yell at him.

Did he trip when he was out last night? Did he fall down the stairs? Did someone hurt him?

You grew angry just thinking about it. You felt your jaw tense up and your hands tighten into fists at the thought of any one laying a hand on Hiro. The bot fighters all knew by now what would happen if they touched him.

Your brother was known throughout the bot fighting rings, and by default, you were too for always managing to get him out of trouble and protecting him.

You remember the first time you saw someone roughly handling your brother, pushing him to the ground before kicking him in the ribs. You were on them faster than anyone could possibly say, fists flying and blood coating your knuckles. No one dared lay a finger on Hiro after that, no matter what he did. But there were always new bot fighters, and you were never sure where they stood concerning Hiro.

You know if you tried to confront Hiro, he would be angry and defensive. You would get nothing out of him. But he was hurt, and he needed tending to. You would have Baymax discreetly scan him the first chance you got.