They've been sitting in silence for a long time. Normally this kind of situation would bring about Hiro's need to fill every space, cover every crack, and he would have talked his way out of the quiet. But it's Tadashi, and everything with Tadashi is comfortable. So he leaned back, legs swinging over the side of the bridge. Some of his crippling fear had faded when he realized he was dreaming. It's not like he could really die, if he fell.

"Don't you think that you should be more worried?" Comes Tadashi's quiet question, posed in the space between them.

"About?" Hiro wonders, because his brother is back and he's finding it hard to care about much else.

"The fact that you're in a coma!" Tadashi exclaims, voice loud like it had been eating away at him. Maybe it had. He always had been overprotective in every way possible.

"I guess..." Hiro thinks about it. "I don't know. It feels kind of numb, honestly. I'm really just focusing on you. Y'know, being here, now."

Tadashi deflates, almost like he had expected this but was hoping for some other answer. "You should be more worried about getting back to the actual now,"

"I thought you said this was real?" Hiro flashes him a grin.

"You know what I mean."

"Yeah."

Silence filled the space between them again, until Tadashi pokes him in the shoulder. "Seriously, you should be more concerned about this, Hiro. I shouldn't be more concerned then you."

"Why are you so worried?" Hiro asks, and Tadashi looks physically hurt at the question.

"Hiro..." He looks down. "Do you not get it?"

"Get what?" Hiro demands. "That I'm in a coma? I'm clear on that. That you're here? Currently living the dream. What is there that I don't get?"

Tadashi looks at him gently. "You really shouldn't be able to see me," he sighs. "The fact that you can means that your life is in serious danger. Like, critical care, hooked-up-to-beeping-machines danger."

And suddenly the realization of the situation hits Hiro. If he dies, the team loses another friend. Baymax loses another patient. Aunt Cass loses another kid. The world loses a superhero.

But if he goes back, Hiro loses his brother.

His face must convey some of his distress, because Tadashi loops an arm around his shoulders. "It's not all up to you," he says. "It's just, if you decide you really want to stay, you probably will. If you decide to live, it'll take some fighting."

Hiro doesn't want to look up. He knows that if he does all he'll see is his brother, staring at him with the same determined look he gave him every time he came back from a bot fight. The one that was filled with so many expressions that it shouldn't be possible to fill a single glance with them all. Tadashi's eyes were always filled with so much hope and belief in every person he looked at, sure that whoever they were could really be amazing. Tadashi is the kindest person that Hiro had ever known, or ever would.

He looks up anyways, though, because Tadashi is his brother and he knows where Hiro's tickle spots are - one way or another, Hiro knows he won't be allowed to stare at his shoes for long.

"Whatever choice you make, Hiro, I want you to be really sure, okay? You're not allowed to be on the fence with this."

"Okay," Hiro mumbles, back to looking at his shoes. He hates choices. He always had. And choosing between his brother and his friends was a choice he never wanted to make.

The sky is darkening, the sunset dripping into a sea of stars, diamonds sparkling above them in a sheet of purple and blue water. It's a little surreal, seeing something so dreamlike with complete clarity, but Hiro figures that if he's going to be in a coma, at least he gets the pretty dream stuff with it.

"You have a cool mind," Tadashi muses, whacking his brother on the head. A totally unnecessary whack that leaves Hiro glaring at his brother - but not for long.

"Yours would just be filled with old motorcycle models and posters of famous inventors." Hiro grins.

He expects an argument, but Tadashi actually smiles. "Pretty close, little brother."

The stars are starting to blink different colors.

Tadashi's smile fades as he looks at the sky. "You might have to decide soon..." He mumbles.

Hiro frowns. He doesn't want to leave. He doesn't want to stay forever, either. Honestly, what he wants is for Tadashi to come back with him, but he doesn't have to ask to know that that's not possible.

"I don't really want to go," Hiro whispers hoarsely.

"Yeah," is all Tadashi says, but Hiro knows he understands. But he feels Tadashi's fingers grip his shoulders, strong and commanding. "Hiro. Honestly, I'd love it if you stayed too. Getting to see more of my idiot little brother? I'd love that more than anything in the world. But that's just me, being selfish. You're helping a lot of people out there, and you're living your life like you should - being the stupid genius you always have been. You shouldn't take that away from the world. You shouldn't take your friendship away from everyone."

Tadashi looks sad, and Hiro hates that - but he doesn't feel much better. In fact, he is starting to feel definitively horrible. The stars are starting to blink faster, and his head feels as though someone is shoving him underwater. He can hear muffled voices - they sound like his friends - and Tadashi's grip is still strong against his arm. Gently, Hiro feels himself being pulled into Tadashi's chest, his brother's arms circling around him.

"Hiro, seriously," he can vaguely hear Tadashi mutter. "You have to choose."

"How?" He chokes out, because it's actually starting to get painful and if this is what death is like then he really doesn't want to deal -

Tadashi sounds like he's a thousand years away, or at least a good hundred, because his voice sounds warped and muffled and Hiro can't really process anything past the world 'choose'.

He's pretty sure things are starting to explode because he hears Tadashi yell and grip his shoulders tighter. There's a beeping noise shattering his mind and the familiar yells of his friends. The noise has reached a level that he can't hear anything but static and yelling and when he opens his eyes everything is black and flashing blue and he's speaking in flowers and -

Suddenly its calm. Hiro still can't see, but the world is blessedly silent and when he tries, he makes a dull groaning noise, so his mouth is definitely working again.

"Hiro?" He hears his brother call, and Hiro quickly licks his lips and yells out for him.

There's the sound of feet on metal and then Tadashi's arms are around him again.

"Remember how I said your mind was cool?" He asks. "Yeah, I take it back. That was scary. Your mind is terrifying, Hiro."

"Shut up," Hiro half-groans, half-laughs at him. "What happened? Why did that - whatever it was - stop?"

"I'm pretty sure that was you almost dying," Tadashi says. Hiro whips his head around at the sound of his brother's voice, trying to pinpoint where he is. "Can you not see me?" He asks, and Hiro can practically hear the frown in his brother's voice.

"No, my vision's all black," Hiro responds honestly.

"O-kay, that's not good." Tadashi worries. "Hiro, seriously. I don't think you have long and if you don't decide, your injuries are going to decide for you. I think this is just the calm before the storm."

"That wasn't the storm?" Hiro asks hoarsely. If that wasn't even what actually dying feels like, he really doesn't want to know what really dying feels like. But at the same time, really dying would let him stay with his brother.

"No, that was your body letting you know that you're not going to last long," Tadashi replies. "I think. This is actually new for me, too."

"Huh," Hiro says, and at this point he's almost too confused and out of his depth to care that the one person meant to tell him what to do really doesn't know what he should do either.

"If you want to try to fight, I think you have to make it through the actual storm."

Hiro still can't see but he can imagine the apologetic look on Tadashi's face when he whips to face his voice and bites out, "What?"

"Yeah, I think that the real wave of horror is going to come soon and if you choose to just, have it end, that's you staying here. But if you push through it, you might come out topside."

Hiro groans, because now not only does he have a choice, but he has a both physically and mentally painful choice. Double the fun.

But just thinking about Tadashi's face, Hiro knows that he'll endure the pain. He loves his friends, and the idea of leaving Baymax alone is unfathomable - but above all, Hiro can't let Tadashi down. Tadashi has always believed the best in him, and Hiro doesn't want to change his brother's opinion of him now. He grips Tadashi's arm for comfort, and he can tell that Tadashi knows that he's going to go through it. Hiro hopes that Tadashi knows that he's doing it for him.

"You got this, little brother." Tadashi tells him, and Hiro wants to believe it.

"How long until it starts -" Hiro starts to ask, but doesn't finish before a wave of disorienting colors assaults his vision. Suddenly he can't breathe and everything is swimming in his ears and it's loud and he feels like his head is being slammed into concrete. He still can't see anything but now all he can hear are the worried yells of his friends and the beeping is back, louder and more present then before. He's starting to lose his grip on reality - or whatever this is - when he feel's Tadashi's fingers digging into his arms. It would almost hurt, if it wasn't the only thing grounding him in the moment.

Hiro is pretty sure that he's screaming, but he can't really tell because everything he yells fades away in the chorus of screams playing in his mind. His vision is still dark but it's scarier than before because now nothing makes sense, and he can practically hear the sky dripping into black like a palette of watercolors, the ground starts to feel less like the bridge and more like flowers, vines that are inching his way up his ankles and over the fabric of his shorts - until suddenly, all that Hiro can feel is heat, excruciating, painful, heat, like the day Tadashi died and oh god Tadashi is dead

Except Tadashi's arms are still gripping Hiro's, and amidst all his confusion, he can still feel his brother's strong arms pulling him into a protective hug. It almost makes all of this okay, just because he knows his brother is there with him. He isn't even sure that he really wants to live anymore because this is too painful and long and confusing and -

Hiro wakes up with a gasp and all he can hear are the shouts of his friends and the loud noises of machines. Out of the corner of his eye he can see the nurses scramble around the room, but he doesn't get much time before the team is crowding around his bed.

"Hiro!" Honey Lemon's voice is cracked and rough like she's been crying, but she sounds so relieved and happy that it makes Hiro's heart swell. "You're awake! We've been so scared, Hiro, you almost didn't make it and we weren't sure if you would even wake up..." She starts to sniffle again and Hiro can see Gogo pull her away for a second.

"You really had us worried there," Wasabi says when he comes up to his bed. He's much calmer than Honey Lemon, but Hiro can still hear the relief there. "I think you need to take some days off of the whole 'hero' thing. Even Baymax has been acting worried, and he's a robot."

"Hiro is my patient." Hiro hears Baymax interject from outside the room, and he almost wants to cry and laugh at the same time. "I was very concerned for his health. I am glad you are better, Hiro."

"Thanks buddy," Hiro laughs.

Gogo must have calmed Honey Lemon down, because she's back by his bedside, along with Gogo and Fred.

"I'm glad you're alive, you idiot," Gogo whacks him lightly on the arm. Fred looks like he's about to yell and hug Hiro at the same time, but Honey Lemon cuts in.

"Hiro, you're crying," she notices. "Are you okay?"

Surprised, Hiro guides his hand to his cheek. Wet droplets are sliding down his face, dripping onto the hospital clothes he's wearing. "I don't know," he says. "I kind of feel like I'm forgetting something important..." Everything is still pretty blurry to him, but the last thing he remembers is his head slamming into the concrete. What would there be for him to forget?

"I think you're forgetting to say sorry, stupid. You scared us all to death!" And suddenly Gogo is on top of him, pulling him into a death-grip of a hug. The rest of the team piles on, and in that moment, it almost doesn't matter that Hiro feels like he's missing something really important.

And if when he looks up he sees Tadashi smiling at him from the corner of the room for a split second, well, that's definitely his imagination.

hello this took me way to long to finish but! i finally did!

so just as a response to the people who wanted hiro to die: i'm really sorry, but even when i first started writing this i never actually planned for him to die (i love my angst as much as the next person, but i'm a sucker for a happy ending tbh) and i wasn't going to change that after i had already started writing it. i hope you still like the ending, though!

and i'm sorry for the wait but school was all over the place. rn it's actually spring break for me, so even though i have to spend like 90% of my time studying for my ap test, i managed to sneak some time in to finish this up.

let me know what u think!