When Stars Collide, a BH6 x Dr Who crossover

Chapter Twenty Four: Hesistation

(What do you do when you're sick at home? Post another chapter!)

Wind gently swept across the grassy hilltop, making the tall strands of grass sway like a gentle ocean current. One minute, he was only hearing Tadashi's voice, the next moment he was lying on a grassy knoll with him as they watched the wind turn the landscape into a green undulating mass.

"You've come such a long way," Tadashi said, giving his brother a bit of a pat on the shoulder as he propped himself up with his other arm. "Beautiful, isn't it?"

Hiro smiled in spite of himself. It was like old times, as though his brother had never really left at all. "Yeah. It's nice. Peaceful."

The older Hamada rolled onto his back, hands now behind his head as he stared up at the sky. "Did I ever tell you how I knew where to find you that night we got arrested?"

Propping himself up a bit, Hiro glanced at his brother, recalling the incident. At the time, he'd been too relieved to see him to even question it. And then with everything else that had happened, he hadn't really thought about it. "No. But now that you mention it, how did you know where to find me?"

"It was Aunt Cass," Tadashi said, a smile coloring his tone. "I was at my lab, working on Baymax. I'd gotten him working just that day, actually." He paused, as if recalling that day with a sense of accomplishment.

Hiro saw the smile on his face and couldn't help but feel one tugging at the corners of his lips as well. "I saw the recording."

Tadashi turned back to face his brother, hat pulled down to keep it from flying off his head. "I was so excited to show him to you that I rushed back to the café, but you weren't there. I figured you were probably out kicking your ball around or something, so I settled in to wait."

Earlier that day, Hiro had taken some time to play a little soccer, alone in one of the adjoining alleys. Before he'd met the gang, he'd spent most of his time alone, especially once Tadashi had gotten into SFIT. It had made things a bit tough, but it was easier to not have to deal with the bullies that way.

"I lost track of time," Tadashi admitted. "The next thing I knew, Aunt Cass was bringing up dinner, wondering if I'd seen you. When I saw your Megabot was gone, I just knew. You must have slipped in after I'd dozed off."

Hiro nodded. He vaguely remembered seeing Tadashi taking a nap, though he'd been preoccupied with the idea of making a few quick bucks at the next bot fight and hadn't really paid much attention. He'd only been in there long enough to grab his robot and verify the location of the fight.

"Then I saw your computer," his brother continued. "You were in such a rush to leave that you forgot to turn your monitor off. Knowing Aunt Cass would freak out, I turned it off for you, then came to find you."

The smile on Hiro's face was more genuine this time. "Thanks," he said, even though they'd ended up getting in trouble anyway.

Tadashi picked a blade of grass and held it between his fingers, watching it struggle to fly away with the breeze. "I was planning on doing some kind of intervention anyway," he admitted. "I knew you were going to end up getting yourself hurt if you didn't stop. And when you decided to try and go to another fight, I knew that I couldn't wait any longer."

Understanding dawned on Hiro's face as he realized what his brother meant. Taking him to the lab had been almost three-fold in purpose. One, it distracted him enough from the bot fighting to stick his interest in other areas, essentially conning him into wanting to join the university.

Two, it introduced him to a new circle of people, people who had become as good as family, mainly because they accepted him for who he was. They'd never expected him to be anything more or less than what he was, and he'd appreciated it. They'd also shown him that he wasn't really alone, that there were others out there who were at least similar to him, enough that he didn't need to shut himself off from the world.