man your battle stations, we'll have you dead pretty soon

[tadeadshi]

[Panic had run straight through his core when he knew someone had found their safe house. It'd been the best one yet, they had managed to stay there for months now, but it really was too good to last. They still had so much to find and clean up, he wasn't ready. He grabs his bag, the one he kept packed for if they had to run fast, and made for the door but stopped just outside.

It was them. It was the Six, they'd found him and Callaghan. He's not sure how, Callaghan's mods to his collar had jammed their trackers so... It must be something else they used. But if they're here then they could help. They could take over this mess, and he could go home.

Maybe.

Tadashi's throat's gone dry with the dirt and dust kicked up from their landing and scuffle with Callaghan off to the side and he stands watching, swallowing the lump in his throat. Callaghan, that's right, he-- He'd done so much to get them out, he couldn't let the guy just be taken back to prison, he'd be killed from the inside --

He makes a run towards the group, waving and trying to call out but any sound he makes drowned by the shouting.]

Comments

[tadeadshi]

[And all the tension he'd built up releases and he slumps back against the headboard. Relief. Exhaustion.]

Good. I'm-- I'm glad you're okay.

Not that you fell out of a tree, we'll talk about it when you come back with food.

[Because no look he is really, really hungry, he's had shitty cheap food for three years now.]

[microbrobotics]

Okay, okay, you'll get all the details. But it might be the actual stupidest thing you've ever heard.

[ And with that, he's gonna go downstairs and get breakfast while his brother's still relaxed. Good. Phase one of convincing his brother he's normal is complete. ]

[tadeadshi]

[He'll believe it honestly. He'll believe anything at this point, he's had almost no contact with anything outside Yama's men and Callaghan for all this time, anything could be real and he'd believe it just about. While Hiro's gone, he looks around his corner of the room; a lot smaller than the one he'd stayed in at the facility, but it's still cozier.

At least for a minute.

Aunt Cass corners Hiro to talk at length about Tadashi and when'd he get back and how is he, why won't he come down; Tadashi takes the time to get up and walk around his own things, touch everything, refamiliarize himself with it all. His own clothes. His own books. His own drafting table, his own computer. His hands finally stop at his hat, hanging neatly on his desk's lampshade, moved from the bed when Baymax lay him down. Tadashi carefully picks it up and sits on the edge of the bed, holding it between his hands and just looks at it, gets lost in his own thoughts.]

[microbrobotics]

[ Aunt Cass please. He understands the impulse, though, and he doesn't want their aunt going up there before Tadashi's ready, so he patiently goes through all the details. Tadadshi got in last night. No, Hiro didn't see who brought him - he heard something at the window and found a shadowy figure lowering his brother into the bed. Does he think it's that Big Hero 6 team? How should he know, he's too busy with school to care about that kind of nonsense. Is Tadashi okay? ... well, he's here, anyway, which is all he can say to his aunt without lying. He promises to come get her the first moment Tadashi's ready for visitors, then heads back up with a heavy tray. Two plates of pancakes, bacon, eggs, rice, natto, orange juice ... Aunt Cass might just cook everything in the house trying to send good things up to her two nephews.

It's kind of a pain maneuvering that tray, actually; his arm hasn't been the same since his fall, so it hurts trying to lift anything remotely heavy with it. He has to kind of shunt it to his right arm to get it stable enough to bring back over to Tadashi's bed.

... Ah. He's found his hat, huh. ]

I think she might be trying to kill us with food.

[tadeadshi]

[When the door creeks, Tadashi forgets for a flash where he is. He freezes in place - until the smell of the food hits him and it doesn't match what he's accustomed to in this situation. He takes stock of the tray, then Hiro, then Hiro's struggle and ditches the hat to help with the tray instead.

Did Hiro not have Baymax look at his arm?

Is Baymax still active?

A lot he doesn't think to ask.]

Jeez, lemme help-- [And just. picks the tray up completely from Hiro and gets it to the bed before sitting back down. ... And starts carefully sliding most of it Hiro's way, he really just wants the pancakes and some of the eggs. Hiro's at that weird age he needs all the food he can grab.]

So, your arm?

[microbrobotics]

[ Baymax is downstairs with Cass for now; his charging cradle is still visible in Hiro's room though, and it looks well-used.

Hiro gives his brother a look - rolls his eyes a little - before letting him take the tray. On the inside, though, he's kicking himself and his stupid dumb arm for being so obvious. Good thing he knows this particular story backwards and forwards by now. He sits back down in his chair and gladly begins devouring his portion of their breakfast. ]

I had it, jeez. It's getting better.

[tadeadshi]

Shouldn't it be in a sling?

[He doesn't know how long ago it was or what's been done with it so far but if he's still having trouble carrying heavy stuff, then he knows Hiro should at least have it in a sling to remind himself not to do it. Tadashi keeps his eyes on the food, carefully picking at his pancakes and eating them slow. Just. Savors that taste, every bite of it. He still wants to try to talk, try to be normal? It's still hard getting his mind working in a normal, brotherly way and not be stuck in panic-fight-or-flight mode.]

What happened?

[microbrobotics]

[ A sling, sure. That'll work great with his armor. He was in way worse pain when he was first starting to recover from the injury but still going out in his armor. At least he'd been able to 3-D print his own cast, which had made things easier. Still way too many nights of PT since then, trying to get full functionality back ...

He huffs a little, not even going to answer that first question. ]

You know that giant, ancient cherry tree in the quad? The one that you're supposed to climb to the top of before you graduate from SFIT or else you're doomed to get the worst jobs ever?

[tadeadshi]

[His chewing slows until he stops and stares at his brother.

So he did go to SFIT. Not only that but he was socializing enough to actually hear about that which is great! But... apparently not enough. He swallows his bite and tries to fight down the anger he has that no one stopped his brother from actually climbing the thing.]

You-- do know that's just a dare right? That doesn't actually happen.

[microbrobotics]

[ It makes him feel a little bad, seeing his brother swallow the lie so easily. Nevermind that he's well-practiced with this story, having had to repeat it to his Aunt and every single doctor he's talked to since then. ]

Dude, I know that. But Fred got it into his head that since he'd been there four years, he had to give it a try --

[ -- he'd been cut off from the others. Bad tactics on Hiro's part, but the handheld stunners the mafia was using were being frightfully effective on the others' more traditional powered armor. But Fred's was basically all vinyl and rubber on the outside, completely immune to the shocks, so Hiro had sent him on ahead-- ]

And he got stuck. Like a cat. I mean, okay, it was pretty high up. He was convinced he was gonna pass out if he so much as looked at the ground.

[ Surrounded by at least ten goons at once; inevitably one was going to get to the metallic undercarriage protecting Fred's head. He'd dropped like a stone. They might have dragged Fred off, taken one of Hiro's friends hostage and exposed all of their identities. ]

So I went up to help him down. That's when I fell.

[ A swift, aerial rescue with Baymax; he'd put Fred down on the roof of a nearby building when the real weapon hit him. An EMP that instantly neutralized Baymax and his flight capabilities. The sudden shock and lack of magnetisation had thrown him from the robot and into an alleyway, fifty feet straight down. ]

Good thing I hit branches -- [ A fire escape ] -- on the way down. Or bad. I guess It's better than a broken neck. [ Or dead, which he would have be if he hadn't been wearing a new flight suit specifically meant to take the brunt of a fall from Baymax.

It all comes out so fluidly and casually. ]

[tadeadshi]

[Fluid and, for all his experience feeling out Hiro's lies, Tadashi buys this one completely. He's got no basis of three years of connection with him or their friends. He only makes it about halfway through his plate of pancakes before nudging it away, a couple bites of eggs. But he is watching Hiro carefully. Tries to gauge just how long ago it really was.

Except one thing.]

How'd Fred get down in the end?

[microbrobotics]

[ Months at this point; they'd gotten a respite from the mafia do to them thinking he was incapacitated. And he kind of was; the initial rounds of pins and casts had been awful. ]

The others did that. [ Came and found him in the alleyway afterwards; they thought he'd died too for a frightening second. ] Shoulda done that in the first place, I guess.

[tadeadshi]

They probably should've, yeah.

[Three bites of eggs and he's done with those too. Too scared to fill up on something this good, he may regret the nausea later of too-much-food-suddenly. He subtly slides it closer to Hiro too, eyes on his brother's face now.]

Really glad you're okay.

[microbrobotics]

[ His gaze drifts back down to the eggs, not quite able to look his brother in the face. Even now, he's not sure he can keep up the lie if he has to stare his brother down at the same time. He wishes his brother would eat more. Did those monsters starve him too? ]

... Yeah. I'm okay. I've just got some wicked pins in my arm now, that's all.

[tadeadshi]

[No!! Just. Too long getting brought shitty take out, after it'd gone cold because they would stop to eat their own and bring Tadashi's after. Only bits of it were ever edible at that point.]

Don't walk by Gogo's lab station then.

[Wait did Gogo even still go to school? Did she graduate already? Did he miss his friends' graduations? The hurt's in his eyes much clearer than it would've been before; a Tadashi by himself (and then with Callaghan) didn't have to try and hide everything from a little brother that needed his support. But here his little brother is and he needs to try to not be the broken thing he is.

He ducks his head behind his glass of orange juice to cover it up. Not as smooth as he could be.]

When'd I get here?

[microbrobotics]

[ That gets a tiny smile. ]

I won't, jeez. I'm smarter than that, at least.

[ He sees that hurt, though. Every time he does is a fresh stab to the heart; a fresh reminder of how bad off Tadashi really is. He hides a wince. Ah, the second half of this ... This lie hes still working on.

Last night, I think. I heard someone come in and ... and you were there.

[ He swallows around the sudden lump in his throat. ]

[tadeadshi]

Did you see who it was? I don't know how long I was out but -

[He wracks his brains, the last thing he knows for sure was being face to face with the Big Hero Six's leader and he reached - His hand goes to his collar and the skin just around the edges. Right...

Wait, no this is bad. He looks back to Hiro concerned again.]

Did they say anything about anyone else being there when they found me?

[microbrobotics]

[ Callaghan. Hi brother's talking about Callaghan. Why is he so concerned about that guy? Wasn't the professor working with the mafia? At least, that was what Hiro had assumed from what few answers he had gotten out of him. Maybe his brother has some kind of Stockholm's towards the guy now.

He has to duck his head to hide his face; otherwise, Tadashi might see the way his jaw clenches. ]

I didn't talk to him at all. I'm not even sure what I saw. Some guy in purple armor?

[tadeadshi]

Yeah, that was him. I guess he didn't stick around to talk.

[So no way to know if he got away okay or what happened to him. But that also means he didn't pass Tadashi's message to them either.

Maybe it's okay. Better Hiro not know what he was saying when he was ready to give up.

He rubs a hand down his face, relaxed himself again.]

Guess he was a little busy to talk.

[microbrobotics]

[ Right, the message. Man, there's no way to back out of that gracefully; better to stick with the lie he has now and have his brother think the Six's leader is a jerk. Helps divorce the two identities. Still, he kind of hates the thought that his brother might think less of his alter ego. ]

Guess so. Should I be watching out for him? ... I mean, it looks like they're good guys on the news?

[tadeadshi]

[Either a jerk or, in Tadashi's thoughts, a bit too busy with keeping his city safe. He didn't have any obligation to pass a message of an on-the-run felon along to his family. But the question of them being the 'good guys' makes his heart sink back to knowing he was building things to take them out; any group fighting against Yama's like that, he'll believe in the good of.]

I'm sure they are, from what I've heard. Hasn't been much, but enough to know they're helping.

[microbrobotics]

[ He can see that in his brother's expression - and he immediately feels guilty again. Because while he knows why Tadashi is making this face, he can't tell Tadashi he knows that. Stupid superhero identities. This is a bad enough conversation even without the minefield. ]

... What's wrong?

[ He has to ask, like he doesn't know. ]

[tadeadshi]

Nothing, nothing.

[He shakes his head, leaning it back against the wall with a little smile. It all worked out, didn't it? At least for him. He's still worried about Callaghan, not knowing where he went. He hopes it wasn't jail. Or back with the mob. But he's safe. He's home and it's thanks to that guy.]

Just wish I could've thanked him for helping me get home.

[microbrobotics]

[ Alter egos. Hiro can't look his brother in the eye for a moment there; it's all he can do to blink hard enough to keep the tears at bay. It's going to be so hard to keep this hidden when his brother says things like that. ]

He probably knows, right? I mean, he brought you here. He knew we were family.

[tadeadshi]

He knew my name, and it wouldn't be hard to trace me back to a, uh college prodigy.

[He'd managed to hear some of it. His information was split between snippets of news reports between projects and some that Robert told him. Enough that he got the picture.

And if nothing else, he can smile proudly at his brother for it all, albeit a tired one.]