I should have been packing for college but I wrote this instead and made myself sad.

San Fransokyo could be a really peaceful place. Obviously there were bad neighborhoods stacked chaotically near each other. But there were parts of it that were peaceful and safe. And, to be honest, everywhere was safe if you were already dead.

Tadashi liked to wander the nicer, calmer parts of town, but he spent a lot of time in Good Luck Alley, acting as a second bot fight bouncer. Watching for his brother. He would be heartbroken if his brother returned to bot fighting. It was basically his dying wish that Hiro would do something with that big old brain of his.

At least now Hiro was attending SFIT. He had missed several weeks while he mourned, but Tadashi hadn't really been in much of a doing things mood when their parents had died, so he didn't blame his brother for being too sad to progress. Tadashi had just been really afraid that Hiro would regress. And until Hiro had started reaching out to Tadashi's former friends, Tadashi feared his brother already was regressing.

But he didn't just walk through Hiro's life. Some things were too painful to watch. His brother reaching the breaking point sent Tadashi flying off to a happier seeming world. The safer, calmer, prettier parts of San Fransokyo. Tadashi needed to be grounded in a prettier reality before he could face the edgy, broken, tormented world Hiro sometimes seemed to be living in.

When he could, he walked the simple, programmed life of a Lucky Cat Cafe server. He'd always loved his Aunt's cafe and the simple joys of working there. When there had been chaos in his life, with failed projects and a thrill-seeking little brother to protect, he had always found immense comfort in attending to customers. It was rhythmic and natural, he didn't even have to think. His feet could just carry him through the motions while his problems disappeared and his reality was contained by a neat and cozy cafe.

His friends had their own ways of escape, and sometimes he joined them. GoGo liked birdwatching in Muirahara woods. Wasabi deep cleaned his apartment and reorganized his everything. Honey Lemon just needed to paint to feel at ease, while Fred would stand in front of a painting of his father and ask it for advice. They had their own little cafes to escape to, so to speak. Tadashi couldn't find the exact same peace of mind they did when he walked their paths, but he appreciated the things it took to make them into the upstanding individuals he had befriended.

As for Hiro, that was the thing. Tadashi wasn't closer to anyone else in the whole world but he couldn't figure out what brought Hiro peace. Hiro always seemed just a little bit restless and bitter. Like something was haunting him. Tadashi walked through his life, only turning away when it hurt too much, but he couldn't figure it out. Which was fine. Back to the cafe, and then back to the drawing board to look at this at a different angle.

And he noticed a lot of things about Hiro. He noticed Hiro begin liking girls, Karmi, Megan, that one robot, Trina. That was a really weird and somewhat disappointing time for Hiro. Tadashi wished he could forget everything that happened when Hiro briefly returned to bot fighting. But he couldn't. He couldn't just forget thinking that his brother was reentering such a dangerous and addictive habit. Hiro and Aunt Cass both had a bit of a thrill addiction. Tadashi felt a lot better when Hiro chased that high through saving lives rather than by fighting robots.

Obviously, Tadashi knew about the whole Big Hero 6 thing. He was still surprised that no one else had figured it out yet. Of course, people believed what they wanted to believe. And people might not want to believe that a group like that could be heroes. Tadashi loved his friends and his brother but they, like himself, were not without flaws. Wasabi had OCD, GoGo never took a break and never took no for an answer, Fred was just a major nerd, and Honey Lemon was so sweet she seemed unreal. And Hiro… Sometimes Tadashi wished could unsee all of Hiro's flaws and unfinished parts.

Tadashi had never seen people as broken, he called them unfinished. Everyone could take their flaws and turn them into a superpower. Until they did, they were unfinished. Hiro was the most unfinished person Tadashi knew. Which is why, even in the afterlife, Tadashi walked Hiro's path, and tried to put the remaining pieces together.

And then, one day, walking the cafe didn't work. Tadashi had a breakdown, and he realized that he couldn't help Hiro anymore. Hiro could find strength in memories, but Tadashi had to move on. He would never be able to have his own peace of mind if he was always trying to find Hiro's peace of mind. As hard as it was to let go of trying to fix his unfinished brother, he knew that that was up to Hiro now. He'd known, even alive, that one day he would have to step back and trust his brother to do the rest.

But it was nearly impossible because letting go made Tadashi realize something else. His peace of mind had never just been found in the cafe serving up orders. His peace of mind was found when he was helping his brother put his life together.

But his brother needed to find his peace of mind on his own, or at least with the help of someone alive. And Tadashi had to find a new peace of mind, away from the city and its calm and its chaos. He loved this city and the people in it, but he wasn't an active part of it anymore. So it was time to tend to his own unfinished parts, and learn to live in a world without his loved ones the way they had to live in and find peace in a world without him.

I'm sorry about the meanness behind Soulmates. Obviously, I stand behind the story, though. I really like it.