Hello everybody!

Baymax had changed too.

Tadashi eyed Baymax's new armour doubtfully. This wasn't how he'd designed Baymax. "What did you do to him?"

"I added a few manoeuvres," Hiro admitted. "Part of making him part of Big Hero 6."

"Hello, Tadashi," Baymax said in his robotic monotone. "I am Baymax, your personal healthcare – "

"I know who you are, I made you," Tadashi said harshly.

Using his crutches, he hobbled to his corner of the bedroom. His bed was as he'd last seen it – his books, his shelves, even his bed sheets untouched and undisturbed.

"We didn't get rid of anything," Hiro said softly. "We couldn't bear to."

Tadashi nodded. "Yeah. Thanks."

On his pillow sat his San Fransokyo baseball cap. Tadashi remembered how he'd always worn it. It had been a gift from his parents, and he'd never taken it off, except of course when his high school teachers made him. For him, his cap had symbolized hard work, big dreams, everything that his parents had wanted to impart to him.

Now, he batted it to the floor as he sat on the bed, tossing his crutches to one side. He moved his one leg and his stump to the bed and lay on the familiar mattress.

"Tadashi?" Hiro peered in at him.

"Could you draw my curtain closed, please?" Tadashi gestured to the curtain that separated his corner from the rest of the bedroom.

Hiro's face contorted briefly in grief, then drew the curtain shut. Tadashi was left the way he wanted to be: alone, with only his terrible self-hatred for company.

~~Page Break~~

A few days later, his college friends stopped by. He'd known it would only be a matter of time before they showed up.

He heard them tiptoeing up the stairs, whispering excitedly. And then, what a surprise, they burst through the curtain, grinning happily.

"Tadashi!" they exclaimed.

Tadashi tried to muster a smile from them – they had, after all, come to see him – but failed. His mouth instead drooped back into the frown he'd found it in more or less continuously since he woke up.

"Hi," he said quietly.

Wasabi's face fell, and Tadashi felt slightly guilty, but not enough to grin properly.

Fred stepped forward. "Hey, buddy," he said. "How're you doing?"

He crushed Tadashi in a hug which Tadashi only half-heartedly returned.

Fred withdrew, surprised. "Man, are you okay?"

"I'm fine," Tadashi said shortly.

His friends exchanged glances.

"Tadashi?" said Wasabi uncertainly. "We're just worried about you, you know?"

Tadashi didn't respond.

"Hiro told us that you're a bit – down."

"Down?" Tadashi laughed bitterly. "That's a nice way of putting it."

There was a whir of gears.

"Contact from friends and loved ones is known to help alleviate bad moods," Baymax volunteered, shuffling forward awkwardly. He had shed his red armour and stood before Tadashi in all his white huggable glory. "I contacted your friends to improve your emotional state."

"My emotional state is just fine," Tadashi grumbled.

"No, it's not," Go-Go stepped forward. "Look, Tadashi, I don't know what you think you're achieving by being like this, but this is stupid."

"Go-Go," Honey Lemon cautioned.

"No, I'm serious. This is really dumb. You can't spend the rest of your life wallowing in self-pity like this."

"What life?" Tadashi murmured. "A life with these?" He held up his mangled hands.

To their credit, his friends tried to smooth out their expressions, but it was too late – he'd seen them recoil.

"There are lots of things besides robotics that you can work on," Honey said softly. "This isn't a limitation."

"Yeah, well, it sure seems that way." Tadashi collapsed back onto his bed. "And everyone keeps saying that. It's not true. Every career you can possibly think of – it requires a pair of functional hands. And what's more, I'm missing a leg. Did you know that?"

"Half a leg," Wasabi corrected softly, before Go-Go elbowed him.

"I'm a cripple." Tadashi turned away. "And there's nothing you guys can do about it. Just please – leave me alone."

With a few murmurs, his friends left. Tadashi felt a cool hand on his neck – it was Honey Lemon. "We're here for you," she murmured. Then she, too, retreated.

Tadashi thought he was alone until he heard a robotic voice speak.

"Will being left alone improve your emotional state?"

"No," Tadashi ground through gritted teeth, "but it will help me stay sane. Now please, please, leave."

The metal whirring told him Baymax had left too. Only then did Tadashi allow himself to fall into a bitter, unhappy sleep.

It seemed that was all he could do these days without help.

I'm sorry if Tadashi seems a little OOC, it's just I want to depict his emotional damage. Who knows? Maybe he'll be seeing an emotional recovery very soon :) Let me know what you guys think in the reviews!