*A.N. Well, here's the second part. I kinda forgot about it... ^^'. Anyway, enjoy!*

The room was too quiet.

Hiro had succeeded on bluffing his way through Tadashi's mini interrogation, and truthfully, he'd been fine. While the lights were on. And his brother was awake and nagging him.

But Hiro had shut his eyes, waiting to go back to sleep, and an hour had passed. Then two. And another. How much time was passing? How long did he have to last until morning?

He couldn't see the clock across the room from him, and the digital one required him to reach out and move it to see it. Not an option. He had to convince the ghost that he was dead too, or it'd get him.

He tried to convince himself he was being ridiculous. Even if ghosts did exist, it couldn't hurt him. He hadn't done anything to merit it. It was completely silly!

Hiro let his eyes drift shut, he was being ridiculous, this place wasn't even haunted-

Across the room, the computer whooshed to life, the small blue power circle lighting up the room. In comparison to the complete darkness the room had previously been, it was impossible to ignore. Hiro had shut it off. He'd shut it off specifically, before he'd gone downstairs. He remembered. And no one had been awake to use it.

Hiro curled deeper into his blankets- not real, not real, not real- and tried to make himself as small as possible, like a lump in the bedspread. A ghost wouldn't attack a lump, right?

The temperature under the blankets increased, and the air became staler and staler, but Hiro didn't dare poke his head out to get fresh air. Not with the tech ghost on the loose. Nope, no way.

The world became hazy. Hiro's eyes drooped shut, the pounding of exhaustion in his skull beating out a lullaby that, despite his fear, dragged him into sleep.

Tadashi was woken by a stream of muttering, and rolled over to pull his pillow over his head. In the silence of the room it could still be heard, despite the barrier. It was just loud enough that Tadashi couldn't ignore it and go back to sleep.

Who's Hiro talking to at this time of night... Tadashi peeked out from under the pillow to check the clock on his desk. ...Morning?

The muttering continued, and Tadashi felt a spark of irritation in his half-awake state. Can't you talk to them later?

"-no..." Hiro's muttering became coherent momentarily, before it dropped back into the range of indiscernibility.

Did I say that out loud? Tadashi didn't remember voicing his thoughts, but he supposed he could have. He glanced over at the opening in the divider, unable to make out a light that might come from a cellphone screen. As his brain began to shake off the fuzz of sleep, he realized the improbability of Hiro actually talking to someone at this time of night. Or at any time, really.

Tadashi swung his feet over the side of the bed, padding quietly to the other side of the room. Sure enough, there was no sign of a phone, and Hiro was beginning to toss in his sleep, the mumbling getting louder. He sighed, rubbing the back of his neck as he debated whether waking him would make things better or worse. The kid needed his sleep, but if things were going to get worse...

A small cry, distinctly sounding like a muted call for help, made up his mind for him. Tadashi sat on the edge of the bed, threading his fingers through Hiro's unruly hair repeatedly, trying to calm the shaking.

"Hiro." Tadashi spoke loud enough to wake him normally, but Hiro didn't respond, other than to try and move away from the sound of his voice. "Hey, you've gotta wake up. Hiro."

Hiro's eyes snapped open, unseeing as he jerked away from Tadashi. "No, no, no, no, no-" His terror brought a sheen of tears to his eyes as he tried to scramble away from the other person.

His dream-hazed mind saw the being from the screen. It had escaped. It wasn't trapped in the computer anymore, and it was there and it was going to drag him away and-

"Hey, it's okay. Hiro, look at me." When Tadashi saw the panic remaining in Hiro's gaze, not fading despite his words, he realized he wasn't hearing him, and the room was too dark to see in.

Hiro relaxed minutely when the being retreated, going back towards the desk area. He hadn't deserved to die. He hadn't done anything wrong, the ghost was just checking. He was going to live, it had just been a mistake. A bright light emanated from the desk lamp, and Hiro squinted against the glare.

"Hiro?" And suddenly Tadashi was there, hand still resting on the cord of the lamp.

It was definitely Tadashi, it couldn't be a trick. He still had the purple bruise on the side of his face that he'd earned the night before from his project. Dark circles lined the underside of his eyes in a way that no ghost could accurately mimic. The look of concern and wariness, with a hint of underlying irritation couldn't be faked or imagined, not this well.

"Dashi?" Even with his certainty, he wanted reassurance that it really and truly was his brother standing in front of him.

Relief colored the older brother's face, shoulders slumping as the tension left his body. He chuckled tiredly, walking over and ruffling Hiro's hair. "Yeah, it's me, knucklehead."

Hiro nodded tiredly, falling back against the pillows. "Stay 'way from the computer."

"Oh?" Tadashi did his best to hide his grin, wanting to hear Hiro's explanation before poking fun. "And why's that?"

"Turned on by 'tself." Hiro pulled the blankets over his head again, facing Tadashi and the computer. "It's haunted..."

"Oh, it is?" Tadashi approached the monitor, shaking the mouse to wake the computer.

-'Automatic Update Complete'-

Tadashi chuckled at the onscreen message. "Well, it must be a very nice ghost if it's upgrading your tech for you."

"Huh?" Hiro pulled the blankets back from his face, making his way off of the bed with the comforter still wrapped around him. He flushed red when he saw the message. "Oh."

"What was that?" Tadashi cupped a hand to his ear. "I'm almost certain I heard: 'I'll never watch a horror movie again, big brother. I've learned my lesson.'"

"You need to get your hearing checked." Hiro pouted, crossing his arms as best he could with the thick blanket in the way.

Tadashi chuckled, ruffling Hiro's hair fondly before yawning widely. He sighed, rubbing the back of his neck as he checked the clock. It was too early for breakfast, but trying to go back to sleep right now might just lead to further nightmares...

Hiro pulled his blanket closer to himself, gnawing on his lower lip as he looked around the room. He wasn't tired. He didn't want to go back to sleep to face whatever dreams might be thrown at him this time. Maybe he could work on one of his robots, or even create a new one. His latest battle bot was kind of old, and-

The younger boy nearly jumped out of his skin when Mochi brushed by one of the hockey sticks balanced precariously on the wall, causing it to fall to the floor with a clatter. Stupid cat…

Walking over towards the stairs, Tadashi motioned for Hiro to follow. Hiro only tripped slightly on his blanket once while going down the stairs. His older brother was setting up the game system and turning down the volume on the tv.

"Maybe this isn't such a good idea…" Hiro hesitated, looking back upstairs.

"It'll be fine, knucklehead." Tadashi popped in the disk before taking a seat on the couch. "A couple rounds of Smash Bros will help pass the time."

Hiro gingerly took a seat on the couch, accepting the controller from Tadashi and watching as he immediately picked Link from the character selection screen.

"I'm using Pit this time, and you can't stop me." Hiro grinned, attempting to lighten up, despite his lingering fear. At least Smash Bros didn't have jump scares…

Tadashi rolled his eyes in response. "Okay, sir spam-a-lot."

The game started, and as predicted, Hiro used Pit's continual spam attacks to his advantage. Hiro triumphantly won the first round. Tadashi won the second and third… and fourth, before Hiro made him change out his character.

This continued until Hiro felt his eyelids begin to droop. The fear-induced adrenalin had worn off, dropping his energy levels below that required to remain conscious. He shook his head to ward off the tiredness, unwilling to go back to sleep. It didn't help much.

Tadashi paused the game when Hiro's controller slid out of his hands, clattering to the floor and startling Hiro out of his daze. "You can go to sleep, you know…"

"Don't wanna go back upstairs…" Hiro mumbled. The trek up the stairs would wake him enough that his brain would begin to spin horror stories again. He'd just power through the night.

Tadashi chuckled, picking up the mostly discarded blanket and dropping it over Hiro. "You don't have to."

Hiro settled on the couch with his blanket as Tadashi stood and stretched. After Tadashi turned off the game console, he headed for the stairs, certain Hiro was already asleep.

"Tadashi?"

"Hm?" He stopped in his tracks, turning towards Hiro again.

"Can you stay down here?" Hiro asked plaintively.

"Let me grab another blanket, and I'll be right down, okay?"

When Hiro nodded, Tadashi hurried up the stairs, grabbing a blanket and pillow. He half expected Hiro to have passed out by the time he got back, but those bleary eyes were still half open when Tadashi set up his make-shift bed on the floor in front of the couch.

"I'm right here, Hiro."

Hiro hummed, finally closing his eyes to attempt sleep again. It couldn't be too bad this time around. Tadashi was between him and the screen, and the first rays of sunlight were peeking through the window. It'd be easier to fall asleep now than at night when ghosts were active.

Besides, Tadashi was here now.

It would have definitely been worse to wake up to him gone.