A/N: Seven years pre-movie, Hiro's 7, Tadashi's 14-ish. Japanese translations at the end.

B-B-B-Be careful making wishes in the dark, dark

"You boys be good, okay?" Aunt Cass called as she rushed about the kitchen, gathering up her grocery list and purse and keys. "I'll be a couple hours. No more gummy bears tonight, Hiro, you'll give yourself a cavity!" A faint groan met her order. "I love you guys! See you in a few hours! Get your homework done, geniuses!"

The door slammed behind her.

For the first few minutes, the two boys contented themselves with doing their work, Tadashi meticulously checking over every answer four or five times while Hiro just blazed through, occasionally glancing over and correcting Tadashi's just to annoy him. All too soon, the younger Hamada finished, shoving his books to the side and staring with wide, puppy eyes at his older brother.

Who rolled his eyes. "No, Hiro." The eyes kept staring at him. "No, you heard Aunt Cass." Hiro really wasn't giving up. "No more gummy bears!"

Hiro pouted for a moment, and Tadashi turned back to his work. Then, "…Could I go get a donut, then?" Hiro begged. "From the café?"

The brothers had loved the fact that they lived above a fully-stocked bakery, even though Cass often wouldn't let them at her inventory. Every so often, though, they got a sample. And Hiro had the world's biggest sweet tooth.

"You know she didn't give us permission," Tadashi argued.

"She didn't tell us not to," Hiro shot back, "just that I couldn't have gummy bears."

"Hiro…."

"I'll split one with you!"

Dammit, the kid was too smart for his own good. "…Oh, fine! One donut, and you have to split it with me," Tadashi stipulated.

"Yes!" the younger boy cheered, clambering up and towards the stairs. "I'll get us the biggest donut in the café!"

"No, Hiro, just a—!" But his brother was already downstairs. Tadashi sighed, returning to his work and starting to check it over for a sixth time. He vaguely heard his brother tottering around in the café, mumbling to himself and likely thinking up code for a donut-fetching robot.

It was a good ten minutes later when Tadashi pulled himself away again, realizing Hiro hadn't come back up yet. He huffed, pushing his own work to the side and heading for the stairs. "Hiro?" he called. "You'd better not be eating through Aunt Cass' stock!" Mumbling, he added, "She does that on her own when she stress eats…."

There was no response from his brother.

Suddenly, Tadashi's stomach sank. The little seven-year-old was never quiet, always either muttering his newest project idea or knocking things over in his exuberance and hyper-activeness. If Hiro was being quiet, he was likely getting into even more trouble than normal.

As such, Tadashi soon found himself cautiously walking down the stairs into the kitchen. He still couldn't hear a thing, and the sinking in his stomach kept getting worse and worse. As he crept towards the next flight of stairs, he snatched up one of his aunt's rolling pins, just in case. He peaked over the railing, unable to see Hiro anywhere.

The thirteen-year-old eased onto the first step, careful not to make a sound, and paused again to check that he hadn't been heard. Sure enough, he heard no response from downstairs, so he continued down the flight, waiting on each step to look for his brother or the reason his brother was so darn quiet.

He was halfway down when he finally spotted Hiro. His eyes went wide as he processed what he saw.

His brother was slumped against a counter, arms behind his back, mouth taped shut and head shaking violently, large brown eyes locked onto Tadashi. He obviously didn't want Tadashi to come any closer.

So of course he rushed right over. "Hiro!" he yelped, sliding to a stop in front of the boy and crouching beside him. "You knucklehead! What were you thinking?!" he continued to rave as he worked at the duct tape covering his brother's mouth. "How'd you even manage to find the duct tape? And why didn't you just take it—?"

As soon as the tape was mostly off, Hiro was screaming at him. "You idiot, GET DOWN!"

But the warning came too late as something hard struck the back of Tadashi's head.

Can't be sure when they've hit their mark

It was just one donut.

Hiro hadn't been paying attention when he'd gone into the café for one of Cass' "reject" donuts. The café was closed for the night, so why would anyone be down there? So, he just wandered into the kitchen, muttering to himself about quicker ways of getting sweets, when he overheard something.

"—you said there'd be tech shit in this dump?"

Hiro couldn't help but gasp, both at the shock of hearing someone in the closed café and at the bad word that had been said. Tadashi would wash the man's mouth out with soap if he'd heard it! Or so he'd threatened Hiro after watching a probably-okay-definitely age-inappropriate movie.

Two things happened at once. First, Hiro threw his hands up to cover his mouth, belatedly realizing that gasping like that was a terrible idea when two unknown people were in his aunt's café after it had closed.

Second, the two unknowns turned to face him. The potty mouth was glaring at him, blue eyes narrowed in on Hiro, and he lunged at the child. Hiro was knocked backwards into the counter behind him, his yelp covered by the man's hand.

"You said no one else'd be here!" the potty mouth spat at his partner.

"No one was supposed to!"

Hiro tried to wriggle free, but Potty Mouth held him in place. "Toss me the duct tape."

The partner fumbled through a bag, pulling something out but nearly dropping it in his hurry. Finally, he tossed it to Potty Mouth.

And then it was being pressed against Hiro's lips. He tried to yell out, but it had already sealed, leaving only muffled whimpers to escape him. Potty Mouth then wrapped his hands together in the stuff behind his back and left him slumped against the counter as he stormed over to his clumsy buddy.

"You said no one else was here," he snarled, leaning in to get in Butter Fingers' face. "You said this would be an easy target! Get in, get the genius kid, and get the cash! What the hell is this brat doing here!?"

"I—I dunno, boss!" Butter Fingers stammered back. "The—The papers never mentioned any siblings, just the kid and his aunt!"

Suddenly, Hiro could piece together what was happening. These weren't two thugs robbing his aunt's store. These were real criminals, ones who had read the recent story about Tadashi in the paper, the one that talked about Tadashi's brilliance in science, his knack for technology, and a joke about him being able to hack through the strongest firewalls. Of course, the last was a complete exaggeration, as Tadashi only knew the barebones of hacking whereas Hiro had been the one to actually learn the finer points.

These two wanted his brother to hack into something, and he knew for a fact that his brother couldn't. And based on how violent Potty Mouth was already proving to be….

If Tadashi didn't do what they wanted, they'd kill him.

And of course, as soon as Hiro realized that, he heard the first whispered call.

"Hiro?"

His eyes went wide, flicking quickly over to where Potty Mouth and Butter Fingers were still arguing, then back to the stairs. He could see his brother's feet slowly making their way down each step, and once Tadashi was low enough, Hiro began shaking his head at him.

Tadashi ran straight to him, sliding to a stop. "Hiro!" he hissed as he pulled at the duct tape. "You knucklehead! What were you thinking?! …How'd you even manage to find the duct tape? And why didn't you just take it—?"

"You idiot, GET DOWN!" Hiro shouted as soon as the tape was off. It was too late, though, as Potty Mouth, who had been sneaking over slowly, bashed Tadashi over the head with one of Cass' rolling pins.

"TADASHI!"

"Shut him up!"

Butter Fingers rushed over to Hiro, shoving a hand into his mouth and fumbling around for the duct tape once more. Eyes burning from tears and glaring up at Butter Fingers, Hiro bit down as much and as harshly as he could on the hand in his mouth. Butter Fingers yelped, but didn't remove his hand until he could replace it immediately with more tape.

Blood dripped from the man's hand, and as he cupped his good hand under it to catch the blood, Hiro couldn't help but feel smug. He'd done that, he'd managed to hurt one of the jerks who'd hurt his brother.

Now if they could just get free.

Potty Mouth was raging again, hissing out curses at his partner as he dragged Tadashi towards one of the computer stations the brothers had convinced their aunt to add in over the past few years. Hiro knew that, as soon as Tadashi came to, they would be forcing him to hack something, anything, trying to get some money. His brain immediately kicked into high gear.

The news (which he totally did not watch, he just couldn't help overhearing when Tadashi decided to watch it) had spent the last few days warning of a pair of criminals who had attempted to rob high security banks. They had been caught, but a jailbreak four nights ago had allowed them to escape and hide away. Police were searching for them, but the news warned that they were highly dangerous and likely to be looking for quick money to extend their freedom.

Potty Mouth and Butter Fingers had to be those two thieves. They would try to force Tadashi to hack into, most likely, a bank with tough firewalls and high payouts. They would use whatever means necessary to get him to help them. Tadashi was highly overprotective of Hiro, and now the two had seen his brother try to rescue him without even paying attention to anything else. It wouldn't take long for Potty Mouth, at least, to make the connection that threatening Hiro would be the best way to get Tadashi's cooperation.

But all of that would mean nothing, since Tadashi wouldn't be able to hack into a bank, anyway. All that would happen would be the two criminals hurting Hiro and his brother.

Unless he could come up with a plan.

And just as he began debating escape options, he heard his brother groan.

Potty Mouth heard it, too, and chuckled. "Well, well, well, looks like our little knight in shining armor is waking up!" He moseyed over to Tadashi, turning the chair he was in slightly to stare him down eye to eye. "Hello, Mr. Hero."

And besides in the mean, mean time I'm just dreaming of tearing you apart

Tadashi was staring into the blue eyes of a criminal, and he knew it. Sure, the concussion he'd gotten from the man was a hint, but he recognized the man, as well. Unlike his brother, he paid attention to the news. The man before him was Raymond Ellis, a known bank robber, who had broken out of jail only a few days ago. And if Tadashi tilted his head just a bit, he could see Ellis' partner, Jeffery Banner, standing guard over his little brother. Banner's hand seemed to be bleeding, and a closer look at Hiro showed a bit of blood dripping down his chin from under the duct tape that was back in place.

For a moment, a swell of pride burst through Tadashi as he realized his brother had bitten the thief. Almost immediately afterwards, he shoved down the pride, replaced instead by guilt and nausea. His little brother was in danger because he'd screwed up, and he had to hurt someone to try and get free.

Then he refocused on the man before him as he spoke. "Hello, Mr. Hero."

Tadashi glared back at Ellis. "What do you want?" he snarled, trying not to glance back at Hiro, knowing it'd just give away his major weakness.

"Why, I want you to help me," Ellis replied, turning the chair towards the computer. "See, I've read up on you, Tadashi Hamada. You're quite the smart kid, huh?"

"Not really," Tadashi bit back, knowing that his brother was far smarter than him already, even if they did push each other as far as robotics and programming went.

"That's not what I've read. The papers said you're a science whiz. Great with tech stuff. Able to hack into any site."

Tadashi winced, remembering the article. "That was a joke. I don't know how to hack into anything!"

The chair spun again, and now, Tadashi could see Hiro just behind Ellis, who leaned forward to be in his face again. "You're not a good liar, kid," Ellis hissed. "And if you don't hack into the San Fransokyo First National Bank, my buddy over there," he glanced back at his partner before turning back to Tadashi, "will have to break your little brother." The maniac sneered at Tadashi as he gulped. "Understood, genius?"

The elder Hamada locked eyes with his brother, who was staring him down intensely. He knew his brother was likely plotting something, plans running through his mind at the sort of speeds that made rockets jealous. He knew he had to stall so his brother could figure something out. With only a moment's pause as the thought of leaving his baby brother to save them stabbed at him, he glared back up at Ellis. "I. Don't. Know. How. To. Hack," he snarled back slowly. "The paper was exaggerating."

Ellis tsked. "Pity." He turned back to Banner. "Start with his legs."

As Banner moved towards Hiro, Tadashi yelled out, "No! Stop! I—I'll try!"

Ellis looked back at Tadashi, holding up a hand to get Banner to stop and studying his captive for a moment before scoffing. "Trying isn't good enough." He waved Banner on again.

"Trying's all I can do!" Tadashi yelped, words getting rushed as he panicked over his brother's safety. "I've never hacked anything before, I barely know the basics!"

Ellis had stopped even paying attention to Tadashi, more focused on Banner and Hiro as the former crouched next to the latter's legs. Hiro tried to wiggle them under himself, but he couldn't get enough leverage without the use of his hands. "Take the tape off. Maybe big brother will feel more cooperative if he hears what he's doing to his brother."

Banner peeled the tape away from Hiro's mouth, and immediately the younger boy was talking, but what he said was nowhere near what the two expected.

"Tada-nii doesn't know how to hack, I do!"

I'm in the de-details with the devil

Hiro watched his brother's eyes widen as he realized what he'd said. "Hiro!" he gasped. "What are you doing?!"

The panic was clear in the elder Hamada's eyes, but Hiro couldn't let that stop him. "I taught him a little bit, but he's got no clue how to get past firewalls as advanced as the First National Bank's!"

Potty Mouth was now solely focused on Hiro, waving once more for Butter Fingers to step back. "You're telling me," he growled, "that a little brat like you knows how to hack into the bank?"

Hiro couldn't help the sarcasm. It was practically hardwired into the Hamada gene pool. "Duh," he said, rolling his eyes. "I've tested into sixth grade already, and the only reason I'm staying back that far is 'cause Auntie's worried about bullying since I'm so much younger than everyone else."

Once more, Potty Mouth scoffed. "A sixth grader? Hacking into the First National? What kinda dumbass do you take me for?"

Only remembering that Potty Mouth was close enough to his brother to possibly hurt him kept Hiro from snapping back with his usual snark. "I'm serious. My IQ was 180 last we checked. I taught myself how to hack when I was bored over the summer."

Potty Mouth tossed a glance back at Tadashi, obviously trying to figure out if Hiro was being serious or not. Tadashi just shrugged back. "It's true. He started correcting my homework when he was still a toddler."

Potty Mouth scowled, but growled out, "Fine." He tugged Tadashi out of the chair by the computer, shoving him into a counter and waving for Butter Fingers to drag Hiro to the chair. Once he was seated, Potty Mouth tied up Tadashi's arms and cut Hiro's loose. "Get started. I want my money, and I want it yesterday."

Hiro began typing, pulling up what he needed as the man continued to threaten them.

"It'd better be at least a hundred mil, and if you even think about alerting anyone," he moved next to Tadashi, pulling a gun from his belt and shoving it into Tadashi's temple, "I'll blow your brother's brains out."

So now the world can never get me on my level

Tadashi knew the threat wasn't to be taken lightly, and he knew Hiro knew that, as well. Still, he kept his eyes locked on the computer screen, watching code fly by as Hiro's fingers sped over the keys. He could recognize a few lines, but most went over his head.

He gave a short shake of his head, trying to focus on getting away or at the very least helping with whatever plan Hiro had. He knew his brother had to have something up his sleeve, and until that plot went into action, he'd have to play the scared captive. Of course, Banner and Ellis didn't need to know that he'd already loosened the ties enough to get his hands free. Or that he knew enough self-defense to safely turn the gun away before the man could fire. Or that standing that close to him would just be their downfall once Hiro gave him a sign to move. They'd find all that out soon enough.

Or at least, Tadashi hoped so.

But as the minutes ticked by and still Hiro was typing away, seeming to be cooperating just fine, Tadashi's mind turned more and more away from escape routes and towards the danger he'd gotten his brother into. He knew the blood on his brother's chin and dotted around his mouth was actually from Banner, but that could've easily been Hiro's blood. And his wrists were turning purple from the tight bonds he'd had earlier. Not to mention the red, inflamed skin around his mouth from having duct tape pulled off not once but twice. Or any other injuries Hiro got before Tadashi even came downstairs. Who knows what these two maniacs could've done to him before tying him up?

And sure, Tadashi got banged up, too, but he knew the signs of a concussion, and what he had was minor at worst. He could definitely afford to worry more for his brother.

Then, a particular line stood out to Tadashi. He'd seen enough of his brother's coding to understand his short hand.

Hiro was setting up a warning for the police. As soon as his program got through the firewalls, the police would get the signal for exactly where they were. They'd just have to make sure the program stalled long enough for back up to arrive.

They would be in the clear.

I just gotta get you off the cage, I'm a young lover's rage, gonna need a spark to ignite

Hiro was typing as fast as he could. It was the only way he could make sure that the two thieves wouldn't accidentally read what he was typing. Of course, his short hand helped prevent them from immediately understanding what he was working on, but still, if he slowed down even a touch, they'd probably catch on that he wasn't being as entirely helpful as he was making it seem.

He knew Tadashi could keep up with his speed, so he hoped his brother had seen enough to know help was on the way. He couldn't really rely on that, though, and not for the first time, he found a portion of his mind diverting from the task to debate some way of protecting against this sort of situation in the future. Usually he only had to worry about second-rate bullies at school who were jealous of his intelligence but couldn't really come up with anything more than the same basic routines: swirlies, stuffing him in a locker, shoving him into a wall. All easily defended against via either the karate his brother had taught him or making sure he stayed in eyesight of teachers.

A break-in was an entirely different subject. Surely there should be some way to deter thieves from sneaking into their home. Or at least some better way of defending against them. He could probably make a robot that could act as a guard dog. Oooh, or a body guard bot! Maybe one that could split apart into several, independent robots to take down multiple attackers….

"What's taking so damn long?!" Potty Mouth snapped at him, leaning over the chair to stare, uncomprehending, at the screen. "I thought you said you could do this!"

Hiro's eyes rolled again. "It's not like movies. It's not automatic, it takes some time. I have to set up a program to break past the firewalls, then one that will register the amount of money you want and divert it from its current location or locations and send it to the account you want it in, then—"

"Dammit, fine!" Potty Mouth snarled back. "Just hurry it up!"

Hiro winced in unison with his brother as Potty Mouth shoved the barrel of the gun further into Tadashi's temple. Okay, definitely needed to follow orders to keep these jerks from hurting his brother. Luckily, his coding was almost finished, he just needed to set up a signal for the police to send him back so he would know when they were on their way. As soon as it was typed up, he released the program into the bank's system.

"And now we wait," he mumbled to himself, leaning back in the chair even as Potty Mouth leaned forward to check over everything.

"This'll work?" he demanded.

Hiro huffed. "Duh. It'll take some time to transfer everything and hide the signal so they don't know where we are—" complete and total lie "—but, yeah, it should work."

"Should?" the criminal snarled, nails digging into Hiro's shoulder.

The child bit back a grimace at the pain, but quickly rephrased. "Will. It will work."

"It better," was hissed back as the man finally withdrew his hand. Hiro quickly reached up to rub at the spot, wincing as he brushed over the five small wounds and the tender skin between. Not only could he tack puncture wounds to his list of injuries, but he'd also have a nasty bruise in the shape of the man's hand. Hopefully, it wouldn't last long.

A ding from the computer startled the boy, and he glanced at it as Potty Mouth came back up behind him. "What was that?!" the criminal demanded.

"My program's started up," Hiro responded. Of course, the program had started a while ago, but Potty Mouth needn't know that. He glanced at the polished monitor, able to see the faint reflection of Tadashi, who was watching him closely, a mix of over-protectiveness and anticipation for whatever plan Hiro had. Butter Fingers was actually doing a decent job holding the gun to the teen's head. The boy's lips pursed for a split second, knowing that what he was about to do would really annoy the two criminals.

It would be worth it, though.

And so, he locked eyes with his brother's reflection and stated, "Karera wa kite iru."

As soon as the words were out of his mouth, he was being shoved into the desk, head bouncing off it from the force behind Potty Mouth's push.

"What did you say?!" the non-Japanese speaker barked. "Tell me what you said!"

Once more, the snark slipped out before he could wrangle it back. "I said, karera wa kite iru. Can't you hear?"

His head bounced off the desk again, a few flecks of blood spotting it now. Hiro grimaced, knowing the new wound would likely start gushing soon as head wounds were wont to do. Still, it was worth it to both get his message to his brother and frustrate the two who had put them in this mess to start with.

As far as Hiro was concerned, this was a win-win.

My songs know what you did in the dark

Tadashi was going to kill these bastards for hurting his brother. Sure, he was glad to know the police were on their way, but Hiro couldn't have told him in a way that wouldn't get him hurt?! For such a genius, his brother can be pretty stupid.

The elder squeezed shut his eyes, forcing himself to clear his thoughts and start working on how to get himself and his brother out of the way once the police showed. The gun was still against his head, but since it had switched hands, he'd have an even easier time disarming his captor. He'd followed the case closely enough to know that Banner was the less aggressive of the two, and what he'd seen so far today only further proved it. Where Ellis was quick to anger and relied heavily on violence, Banner was practically shaking anytime he had to do something. Even now, the man's hand was twitching, the gun nearly vibrating against Tadashi's temple.

As soon as he had confirmation that the police were outside and ready to storm in, he'd need to act. The gun would be simple enough to twist out of Banner's hold, but Ellis had one, too.

And he was starting to turn it on Hiro.

"Translate!" the man snarled at the boy. "What you said just now, what does it mean!?"

"It's a prayer," Hiro lied immediately. "To keep us safe."

Ellis turned to Tadashi, gun still trained on Hiro. "Is that true?" he demanded.

Tadashi met the man's eyes, forcing himself to stay calm. "Yes," he stated. "He was asking our parents' spirits to watch over us."

Hiro nodded enthusiastically behind Ellis. "Kaa-san and Tou-san will keep us safe."

Ellis sneered at the younger Hamada. "You'd better hope they do. Now, make sure my money's coming."

Hiro turned back to the computer, tapping away at the keys. Tadashi knew none of this was necessary to check on the money, but the criminals didn't. And Hiro was banking on that.

In fact, Tadashi could see that there were more lines than Hiro could possibly be typing at that speed. Whoever Hiro had contacted through his program, they were talking back now.

They were communicating with the other side. The time to act would be soon.

So light 'em up, I'm on fire

Cassiopeia "Cass" de Gaio, owner of the Lucky Cat Café and acting mother to her two nephews, Hiro and Tadashi Hamada, had been out on a grocery run. As a café owner, she had to constantly make sure she had the proper amount of ingredients to bake her inventory. That meant often having to leave Tadashi and Hiro home alone or take them with her. And with Hiro's slight obsession with gummy bears and other sweets, taking them along often ended with an additional five pounds of candy.

As she drove home, she noticed the higher-than-usual amount of police cars zipping by her. At first, she just assumed they were heading downtown, as normal, which was a few blocks past her café and home.

Then a police car zoomed around her and turned onto her street.

Cass' eyes went wide. "…No," she murmured to herself, shaking her head. There was no way they were going to the café. They were probably heading further down the street.

But as she turned onto the street herself, she realized she was wrong.

A crowd of police cars were outside her café. Cass slammed on the breaks, throwing her car into park as she gaped at the yellow tape strung up on the street. Her hands came up, one covering her mouth and the other clinging to the pendant on her necklace, the last gift from her late sister, Valentina "Val" Hamada. She popped open her door, slowly lifting herself out of her seat and standing by her car.

Luckily, a passing officer noticed her panic. "Excuse me, ma'am," he called as he came over, "you need to vacate the are—"

"Th—That's my café," she mumbled back.

"What?"

"That's my café," she repeated, louder, pulling her hand away from her mouth. The other was still latched onto the pendant. "M—My nephews are inside!"

The officer's eyes widened slightly. "Ma'am, your nephews are Hiro and Tadashi Hamada?"

"Y—Yes, how did you know their—?"

But he was already hooking an arm around her to lead her to the commanding officer. "Sir!" he called. "Their aunt just got back!"

A bulky officer turned to her. "Ms. Hamada?"

"It's de Gaio, actually. Their mother's—was my sister," Cass replied, anxiously glancing between the man and her home. "W—What's going on?"

"Ms. de Gaio," the officer began again, "my name is Chief Kaufman, SFPD. We got a call earlier today from the First National Bank about someone hacking into their system."

"My nephews would never—!"

"Ms. de Gaio, please let me finish," Kaufman said gently, resting a hand on her shoulder. "The hacker was trying to communicate with us. They were being forced to hack in to try to steal some money for a pair of thieves who were holding them hostage. The hacker gave us this address as where they were being held."

Once more, a hand came up to cover Cass' mouth. "Oh, God, the boys, they—they're being held hostage!?"

"We believe so, ma'am."

"Are they okay? Are they hurt?! Oh, God, I didn't even hug them goodbye!" Tears were welling up in Cass' eyes. How could she have left without hugging them? They had been her little boys for the past three years, the last thing she truly had of her sister and her husband. If anything happened to them, if they were gone too….

"As far as we know, ma'am, they're okay. They know we're here, and they've been sending us as much information as they can about their positions and their captors. We plan on heading in in just a few moments, and with the data they gave us, it should be fairly simple to get in and out with only minor damage to your home."

"And the boys?"

"Provided they don't move once we get their final locations, they should be fine, too."

"Sir," another officer said as he came over, "we've got their current positions."

Kaufman nodded. "Prep the team. I'll be there in a moment." As the officer ran off, Kaufman turned back to Cass. "Ma'am, I'm going to ask you to wait over by the ambulances. We'll have your nephews out for you in just a few minutes."

"Th—Thank you, sir."

"Of course."

And as the officer turned towards his team, Cass let out a huge sigh of relief.

Until a gunshot rang through the air.

All the writers keep writing what they write

Hiro kept his eyes glued to the screen. Line after line of code flew by, half his own and half the police's responses. He'd let them know all he could, where he and his brother were, where the two criminals were in comparison, the weapons that the two had.

Hopefully, if all went well, Aunt Cass wouldn't even know the sort of danger they were in until the danger had all passed.

The newest line caught his attention then, and he quickly decoded it in his mind. In position. Remain where you are. Breaching in five.

The boy sighed. Good. Now, to let Tadashi know. "T—Tada-nii?" he mumbled, making sure he got his brother's attention.

"What, Hiro?" came his response, even as Potty Mouth yelled at them for talking.

"Mada taizai. Karera wa soto ni shite iru."

Potty Mouth did not take that well. He latched onto Hiro's arm, dragging him from the chair before the computer.

"Hiro!"

"What did I tell you!?" Potty Mouth spat at him as he continued to pull him through the café. "None of this Japanese crap!" He threw Hiro into a counter, raising his gun to aim straight at the boy's head. "You're gonna tell me what you said, what you really said to your brother!"

"I—I was asking him about Mom and Dad!" Hiro stammered, panicking as he realized this last hit to the head made him too wobbly to move out of the way. As it was, he had to cling to the counter to stay standing.

The man just sneered at him, cocking his gun. "Wrong answer."

"Hiro! Shita! Ima!" Tadashi yelled at him, but he couldn't make his body listen, and he merely flinched as he heard the gun go off.

Somewhere another pretty vein just dies

As soon as Ellis had turned his focus entirely on Hiro, Tadashi pulled a hand free and twisted the gun out of Banner's hand. With that done, he quickly threw his elbow into the man's face, the sound of his nose breaking drowned out by Ellis' yelling.

As Banner went down, Tadashi spun to look at his brother, and his heart nearly stopped at the sight. His brother was shakily holding onto the counter, blood trailing down from his temple, as Ellis aimed straight at his head. Tadashi did a quick calculation for how fast he could cross the café floor, then shouted out a warning, "Hiro! Shita! Ima!"

Then he ran faster than he had in his whole life.

I've got the scars from tomorrow and I wish you could see

Cass spun back towards the café, eyes wide once more and feet pulling her forward. An officer stood in her way, grabbing her arms to cease her movement.

"—am!" he was yelling at her, and for a moment, she stared at him, not able to comprehend his words. "We—ing in—eep cal—"

She shook her head, eyes flicking back to the Lucky Cat. "M—My boys… my boys are in there…."

"We need you to stay calm, ma'am." At least now he was making sense. "Our team is inside, the gunfire was likely one of our men taking down the perp—"

And now Cass' full attention snapped to the officer, a glare quickly spreading across her face. "Really?" she spat, some of the snark that ran rampant through both the Hamada and de Gaio families showing itself. "See, I highly doubt that, given that only a minute ago, your chief was telling me you were still getting ready to go in!" She folded her arms over her chest, a foot tapping in her impatience with this man's stupidity. And really, with Tadashi and Hiro's influence, she'd become highly unused to dealing with stupidity of any kind. "So please, explain to me how in a single minute, your whole team could prep, go in, find the men responsible, and shoot at them?"

The officer winced and stammered, and Cass knew she'd won this rather pathetic stand off.

"I thought so. Now, if you could please get a competent officer over here to tell me what's really going on, that'd be much appreciated."

With a sheepish nod, the man slunk off, giving Cass a moment alone to stare up at the building and pray for her sister and brother-in-law to keep her boys safe.

That you're the antidote to everything except for me

The first thing he noticed was pain. It shot through his body, burning and searing at his veins, and for a moment, he wished he was still unconscious.

The second thing he noticed was wet. It dribbled down his head and down his side and down his arm, and he could hear the soft plip plip plip of the whatever-it-was dripping onto the floor. All he could think was that Cass hated spills on her nice wood floor and it would stain and warp the wood.

The third thing he noticed was screams. Shrieks. Yells. Noise. It pounded at his ears and made his forehead throb and pulse and for some reason his throat was burning, but he couldn't understand why until he recognized the high-pitched keening as his own. He hadn't made a sound like that since he still had recurring nightmares of his parents' deaths.

Then the world snapped into focus. Blurry images were suddenly crystal clear, if a bit shaky, but he could see his brother on the floor and Potty Mouth slumped against the counter beside him. He blinked sluggishly up at Tadashi, and realized maybe the world wasn't as focused as he thought when his brother's image spun a bit as he moved.

He tried to focus on his brother's mouth as it moved, but his eyes kept crossing and the world went fuzzy and the sound muffled. His words distorted and jumbled and no matter what he tried he couldn't straighten them out. It was like Humpty Dumpty but with sound instead of egg shells.

Then he was being lifted up. For a moment, a goofy grin spread across his face, relieved that Tadashi had finally gotten to him, that he was finally safe.

Until his eyes locked on his brother's, further than they should be, still hunched by a table.

His mind spun. How could his brother both be holding him and be all the way over there on the ground? Had his brother learned how to duplicate himself? Maybe some new prototype or he'd finally turned into the superhero he'd always secretly imagined him to be.

And now something cold and hard was pressing up on the side of his throat, forcing his chin up slightly. His eyes were still on Tadashi's, watching them widen then narrow and his mouth kept moving and the words still weren't making sense but he knew he should be paying attention 'cause this was important and he wanted his nii-chan, kami, onegai, nii-chan, tasukete!

"—go!"

Matte.

"Let him go!"

"Shut up or I'll shoot!"

Bukiyouna. Butter Fingers. He'd been shaky before. Ima denai. The gun was steady, pushing against the pulse point on his throat. Kami, itai! Between the burning in his head and arm and side and the gun against his neck, he was in so much pain! Stars danced before his eyes, vision fuzzing again.

Then the gun jabbed at him, and he couldn't breathe. Raspy gasps echoed from his throat as he tried and failed to pull in air and why weren't his lungs working right what was going on kami watashi wa shinu!

And Tadashi's eyes caught his own. They were calm, even though he saw panic in them, too. Of course his brother was calm, he wasn't dying of blood loss and suffocation all at once! But, no, they were trying to bring him the calm. They were reassuring, confident, warning.

Tadashi was going to try something to help. It was finally time to put years of sparring and karate lessons to use.

His mind fuzzed over again when he nodded, realizing as he did that his concussion was probably very severe and why didn't he notice that before when he saw how blurry the world was and how spinny and—and—

Tadashi nodded back. He stood, bracing himself to attack—

And Hiro went limp.

A constellation of tears on your lashes

As soon as he realized his brother couldn't move in time, Tadashi altered course just slightly. Instead of crashing head-on into Ellis' back, he angled for the shoulder of the unarmed arm. He connected in the split second before Ellis had fully pulled the trigger and as such, he successfully knocked the man's aim off.

Of course, this sent Tadashi sprawling into a table, which flipped under his weight, and threw Ellis head-first into the counter Hiro was leaning against, knocking him out instantly.

With the worse of the two men taken care of, Tadashi quickly sat up to check on his brother.

Hiro was slumped next to Ellis, and for a moment, Tadashi thought he'd failed to save his otouto. Then, he realized that there was no bullet wound in his skull, and all the blood there was from his previous head wound.

Tadashi breathed a sigh of relief, until he noticed the blood soaking Hiro's left arm and side.

The bullet was lodged in his brother's shoulder, only inches from his heart. He'd saved his otouto from an instant death in exchange for a slow, painful one.

"Kami," he murmured, pushing himself up further to try to get a better look. His shoulder gave out at the motion, and he realized he'd likely wrenched it if not dislocated it. He shifted his weight onto his other arm, calling out, "Hiro! Hiro, otouto, daijoubu desu ka?"

His brother wasn't moving.

"Hiro!"

And suddenly Hiro was moaning, eyes flying open as his voice ratcheted up to a shriek. His arms twitched like they were trying to move, but between his probable concussion and the sheer amount of pain he was in, he couldn't get them to do more.

"Otouto!" Tadashi yelled over the screams. They slowly died out, and Hiro's head lifted just slightly, glazed hazel eyes blinking sluggishly at Tadashi. "Daijoubu desu ka?" he asked again, repeating in English as the boy just continued to blink. "Are you okay? Hiro? Hiro!"

Banner came out of nowhere. Tadashi had forgotten the other man, thinking him to be downed from the strike to his nose. But no, he was up and had pulled Hiro up to his feet, gun tilted up under the boy's chin. Blood dripped from the criminal's nose and over his mouth, dripping down his chin and into Hiro's hair.

And Hiro was smiling. Honest to God smiling that goofy, just-got-gummy-bears, I-got-what-I-wanted smile. The concussion must've been worse than Tadashi thought if Hiro was this delusional.

The gun twitched up, forcing Hiro's head a bit higher, and Tadashi tensed up. "Let him go," he demanded.

Banner shook his head, globs of viscous blood splattering to either side. Hiro was starting to catch on that something not good was happening, brow furrowing slowly as the glaze over his eyes faded a bit.

"Let him go!"

"Shut up or I'll shoot!" Banner barked back, jabbing the gun further into Hiro's throat. The boy coughed, then tried drawing in raspy breath after raspy breath.

For a moment, Tadashi wondered if Hiro's asthma, which hadn't bothered the boy in nearly two years, had come back due to all the stress, but then he looked a bit closer. The gun was being shoved into his throat, more specifically, into the pulse point on his throat, restricting blood flow to his brain as well as cutting off his oxygen.

Tadashi needed to get the gun away. Once more, he ran numbers and angles in his head, knowing that just working on his own would get his brother killed, but Hiro was in no shape to try any of his own self-defense tricks. They needed a distraction, Hiro needed to get out of the way.

The elder Hamada caught his brother's eye, trying to relay as much love and concern and calm as he could while also getting across what he needed his brother to do.

Hiro's eyes crossed a bit, brow furrowing for an instant once more before smoothing out, glaze finally fading entirely and breath becoming a bit more even. Hiro's head bobbed just slightly, eyes crossing briefly again but quickly refocusing as Tadashi nodded back and pushed himself to his feet.

Hiro dropped.

Tadashi bolted at Banner while he was put off-balance trying to hold Hiro's deadweight. A quick roundhouse brought the man down, and Tadashi tugged Hiro free as his little brother blinked up at him and latched onto his arm.

It was a prank the two had pulled on their aunt, more so Hiro than Tadashi, when they were being lazy. Hiro would play dead or fake sleeping to be carried up the stairs, and Tadashi was usually the only one able to see through it. Aunt Cass still fell for it nine times out of ten, and Tadashi knew to predict it as soon as Hiro had nodded at him.

As Tadashi dragged them behind the table for safety, the police finally stormed in, shouting for "Hands up! Weapons down!"

Tadashi yelled out, "They're down, but my brother needs an EMT!"

An officer was soon crouching before them, studying the two carefully and shining a light in their eyes to check for brain trauma. "What's your name?" he asked.

"Tadashi Hamada, and my brother's is Hiro."

"Do you know where you are? What day it is?"

"We're at the Lucky Cat Café and it's November 9th."

The officer nodded. "How long has your brother been unconscious?"

Wide-eyed, Tadashi frantically looked down at Hiro, seeing that, sure enough, the boy was out cold. "Oh, kami, sh—shiranai, I—I don't know, he—he was awake a minute ago—"

"Mr. Hamada, Mr.—Tadashi," the officer called out, laying a hand on the elder Hamada's shoulder. "If he was awake just a short time ago, he should be fine, we'll get him out to the ambulance once they bring in a stretcher."

"R—Right," Tadashi murmured, "th—thank you."

"No problem. Now, Tadashi, I need to know all you can tell me about your and your brother's injuries."

Burn everything you love then burn the ashes

Cass intercepted the boys at the ambulance, latching onto Tadashi in a fierce hug. "Oh, thank God!" she breathed, head dropping onto his shoulder. "I thought I'd lost you!"

Tadashi smiled sadly. "We're okay, Aunt Cass." He hugged her back, then sighed. "Well, we will be."

The brunette pulled back to arms' length, studying Tadashi's face carefully before noticing one of his arms was in a sling. "Oh, God, Tadashi, what happened?!"

He chuckled a bit at her absent-mindedness. "I pulled my shoulder, Aunt Cass. That's all." When she raised an eyebrow at him, he winced and backtracked. "Okay, that's not all, but that's the biggest thing." Once more, her brow twitched up, and now her arms were crossed and a foot was tapping. "…For me," he amended. "Hi—Hiro's in worse shape. I just have my arm and a minor concussion." He sighed, glaring down at his feet. "…I couldn't protect him, Aunt Cass. They—They hurt him, and I—I didn't do anything to stop them…."

"Oh, Tadashi!" She leaned in, hugging him tightly again. "I'm sure you did all you could."

"I could've done more, though. Aunt Cass, he blacked out! Twice! And I just—just sat there and let them!"

SMACK

Tadashi blinked, gaping at his aunt, who lowered her hand. His cheek stung, and he brought up his uninjured hand to hold it. "Wha—?"

"Tadashi Daisuke Hamada, don't you dare say you didn't do anything to help your brother!" she raved. "You would do anything for that boy, Tadashi, and we both know it! You and Hiro are the smartest people I know. If you couldn't think of a solution to keep Hiro from getting hurt, then there wasn't one!"

For a long moment, the teenager could only stare at his aunt, hand still cradling his face, before he glanced down and peeked up at Cass through his bangs. "…You really think so?"

She smiled back at him, resting a hand on his shoulder. "I know so, sweetie. You and Hiro can think your way out of any number of situations, but not every situation has a safe way out."

He nodded and sighed. "I still feel like I should've protected him better…."

"You're an older brother, Tadashi," Cass reminded. "You'll always feel you should keep Hiro safe, but sometimes we need to let the ones we love get hurt so they can grow."

Tadashi winced. "But—He almost died, Aunt Cass! He—They shot at him!"

Cass sucked in a breath, trying to keep from panicking by reminding herself that Hiro was safe, was in the ambulance just behind them, being taken care of by a professional medical team. "I—I know, Tadashi," she murmured, hugging him again, tightly, to reassure herself that at least one of her boys was safe and sound with her. "But we won't always be able to protect Hiro. He'll get himself hurt along the way, but so long as we're around, we can pick him back up."

Tadashi was intently staring at the ground for the next few minutes, Cass practically hearing the gears turning in his head as he thought up a new project, but he finally nodded. "He'll get hurt," he echoed, "but maybe I can make sure he'll always heal."

His aunt ruffled his hair, grinning brightly at him. "There's my smart little man!"

"Aunt Cass!"

"Ma'am."

Both spun to face the EMT that had come towards them. "Y—Yes?" Cass replied after a nudge from her nephew.

"Your other nephew is awake now. You can both come see him, we just ask that you remain calm and don't rile him up."

"Th—Thank you," both stammered, following the man back to the ambulance.

In the end everything collides

Hiro woke to a bright light being flashed in his eyes. When he whimpered, it flickered one more time, then left. He sighed in relief, but then there were voices yapping at him, and he frowned again. Didn't these people know his head hurt? Why did they have to be loud and bright and in his face?

"Hiro?"

How'd they know his name? He's never seen them before?

"Your brother told us your name, Hiro."

Oh, was that out loud?

"Yes, it was, Hiro."

…Okay, so his brain-to-mouth filter was malfunctioning. His mind stuttered for a moment, trying to remember the proper protocols for fixing a filter, but code flew through his mind too quick for him to latch onto the right piece.

"Um, you understanding any of this?"

"Not a word. They weren't kidding about him being a genius with tech, huh?"

Oh, right, no filter. The codes were spilling out of his mouth as soon as they flashed through his mind, and he was probably just confusing the people he'd never met but somehow knew his name.

"Again, your brother told us."

"We're EMTs, Hiro. You and your brother were injured earli—whoa!"

He'd bolted upright at that, eyes going wide. That's right, Tadashi. Tadashi was with him Tadashi was hurt Tadashi was stupid enough to yell at him while there were burglars in the café.

"Gee, thanks, bonehead."

"Tadashi!" Oh, good, now his filter was functioning again.

His brother chuckled. "Not really, knucklehead."

Drat. None of his coding was working, then. How do you fix this filter? Answer: you apparently don't.

"It's the concussion, Hiro," his brother explained. "You're going to be a bit confused for a while, and spouting off everything you're thinking is apparently one of the perks."

Fantastic. Wait, then this means if he ever thought about Tadashi's upcoming birthday present—

"I'll cut you off now. How about you answer some questions for the EMTs, huh?"

Right. Probably a good idea, since he really wanted to keep the present a secret. But it was gonna be totally awesome to see Tadashi's face when he opened—

"Hiro. Questions."

Right.

Hiro tried to turn his head, but that sent a searing pain through his forehead and suddenly his neck wouldn't move at all. He instead locked questioning, confused eyes on his brother.

"They've immobilized your neck so you don't accidentally hurt yourself more."

Oh, good. These EMTs were pretty smart.

"Think you can answer some questions now?" Tadashi was asking over some laughter. Probably the EMTs. They seemed to find everything amusing.

"Just rambling concussion patients."

Ugh, he really needed to come up with a way to stop doing that.

"Okay, Hiro, can you tell me what you remember last?"

That was easy. Butter Fingers had shoved a gun at him and Tadashi wanted him to play dead like he did when he wanted Aunt Cass to carry him up to bed at night.

"I knew you were faking!"

Whoops.

More laughter echoed around him. "Good, good, Hiro. Now, do you remember what happened to you? Can you tell us where all you were hurt?"

For a moment, the words didn't process right. Then, it pieced together in his head. They were asking what parts were damaged, no, what needed repairs, no, those weren't the right words. They were asking about him, and he wasn't a machine. Well, the body ran like a machine, but the same words didn't apply.

Injuries. They wanted to know about his injuries.

"Mm, hit my head a few times. A lotta times," he mumbled, finally getting his mouth to work right and spout out what he wanted to say rather than what he was thinking. "They taped my mouth shut, too. Twice. And taped my hands together at first. But they took the tape off when they needed me to use the computer."

"Right. Does anything else hurt?" the EMT prompted. He seemed concerned, maybe Hiro was forgetting something?

His brow furrowed. "Mm, I don't think so?" Then a slight twinge reminded him. "Oh! My arm hurt, towards the end. And something wet was on it."

The man sighed in relief. "Okay, good. Does it still hurt, Hiro?"

"Chotto, a bit. I'm more just dizzy and tired and my head hurts some."

"Right." The man looked over at his team, then at Tadashi and Cass before glancing back down at Hiro. "We're going to give you something to help the pain, okay?"

"Uh huh." His eyes were drooping a bit, and he lazily followed the man's hand as it injected something into a line nearby.

"We'll head over to the hospital, and they'll fix you up, okay?"

"Aa."

His eyes drifted closed, and anything else the man or his team might've said faded away.

My childhood spat back out the monster that you see

"He's got a pretty bad concussion," the medic, Isaac Custer, explained to Tadashi and Cass. "I don't believe there's any further damage to his brain, but it is dulling his pain. We'll need to check again later whether he's got feeling to his arm, but given he'd felt it when the injury initially happened, I'm fairly optimistic that there's no lasting nerve damage. The bullet is still in his shoulder, so we'll need to take him into surgery once we get to the hospital to remove it, and we'll likely need to stitch up his head wound. Other than that, he's in pretty good condition, we're giving him a bacitracin spray for the abrasions on his hands and around his mouth."

Tadashi nodded, eyes still glued to his little brother, studying him carefully as his chest slowly rose and fell with each breath. Hiro was okay. He was safe. They were going to help him. All that was left was the surgery, and he'd be fine.

Apparently, Tadashi was wincing, because suddenly a light was shining in his eyes. "W—Wha—?"

"Were you hit in the head as well?" Custer was asking.

"Um, y—yeah, with one of Aunt Cass' rolling pins."

"Oh, God!" Cass gasped, hand to her mouth.

He quickly hugged her closer. "I—It's okay, Cass, like I said, just a concussion, not even a bad one!"

Custer frowned. "I'll be the judge of that, thank you. Please sit back a bit."

Tadashi followed the order, sitting up straighter along the side of the ambulance. Custer performed a few quick checks, studying Tadashi's eyes and in his ears and his head.

Finally, he pulled away. "Alright, you only have a minor concussion." He grinned at Tadashi. "Studied a bit, have you?"

"Have to, with a brother like Hiro," Tadashi replied with a smirk.

"You'd make a good medic yourself."

The elder Hamada had to laugh at that. "I'm really better at robotics."

Custer shrugged. "No reason you can't do both."

A slow smile spread over Tadashi's face. "…There isn't, is there…?"

My songs know what you did in the dark

Hiro blinked awake again, for once not having to deal with a bright light in his face. A brief glance to his side showed Tadashi slumped against his hospital bed, latched onto his hand and fast asleep. Hiro grinned at his brother, then cast his eyes around again to look for his aunt. His brow furrowed when he realized she wasn't there, then he shrugged, assuming she was off stress-eating as she usually did when panicked about the Hamada brothers. Instead, he twitched the hand in Tadashi's hold, rubbing at his brother's wrist to try to wake him. "Dashi," he called, "Dashi, hey, get up!"

"Nh?"

"Dashiiii, wake up!"

"Nn, doushita?" Tadashi blinked at Hiro for a moment, then his eyes went wide. "Hiro! Yokatta!"

Hiro hissed as his brother pulled him into a hug, squeezing far too tightly to be comfortable. "Mou! Put me dooown, baka-nii!"

Tadashi chuckled, loosening his grip. "Gomen, gomen. A—Are you really okay, Hiro?"

"Duh," Hiro said, rolling his eyes. "You act like I got shot or something."

There was a long pause, Tadashi just gaping at his brother. "…Um, Hiro…?"

Hiro blinked. "What?"

"You—er, you did get shot."

The younger Hamada chuckled. "No, I didn't, Tadashi."

But Tadashi leaned over Hiro and poked at his other shoulder, which was wrapped heavily. "That's what this is, knucklehead. They had to perform a surgery to remove the bullet from your clavicle."

"Wh—What?"

Tadashi sat back down. "You're gonna have to be careful for a while as the bone heals, otouto. No more ticking off burglars, okay?"

"Aa…"

And now Tadashi's brow furrowed. "What do you remember?"

Hiro thought back, head still a bit fuzzy and pounding at the effort. "Mm, you tackled Potty Mouth and there was a bang, then he was asleep and you were by a table and then you were also holding me, but it wasn't you and something was cutting off my air and you wanted me to play dead."

His brother chuckled. "Potty Mouth?"

Hiro shrugged. "I didn't know his name, and he cursed a lot."

Tadashi nodded, then corrected his recollection. "It wasn't me holding you, it was Banner." At Hiro's confused look, he rolled his eyes and revised, "The other burglar."

"Oh! Butter Fingers!"

Tadashi burst out laughing at that. "Wow, yeah, th—that one fit pretty well until the end."

Hiro's head tilted to one side, and he fought off nausea for a moment before asking, "The bang was when I got shot, wasn't it?"

"Yeah," Tadashi admitted. "I couldn't quite get his aim completely off you. And after you played dead, I did a roundhouse to knock out Banner."

The younger's eyes lit up at that. "Yeah! You were awesome, Tadashi! Like one of the heroes in my karate movies!"

Tadashi snorted at that. "Yeah, right. You're on too many meds, little brother."

Hiro pouted. "Am not! You took out both those guys! And with no help at all! You rock!" He grinned up at his brother. "If I had a bot that did all that, I'd never get picked on again at school!"

The elder frowned at that. "Hiro, you know that karate's only for self-defense. You sound like you're gonna go looking for a fight if you made that bot!"

Waving a hand dismissively, Hiro replied, "Of course not! There'd be no competition at all if it was a bot I made versus a bully!" Then he perked up, remembering something he'd overheard once at school. "But if there were other bots…."

"No." Tadashi was scowling at him. "I've already told you, bot fights are illegal and you could get into serious trouble if you're caught at one!"

"Oh, but Dashiiii! My bot would totally kick butt!"

"No, Hiro, and if you do, I'll start sewing trackers into your clothes to keep you out of trouble! Now, we are done with this discussion."

But the thought had already cemented in Hiro's head. Sure, it'd take a few years to get the bot absolutely perfect, and for him to get big enough to not just be automatically laughed out of the ring, but it'd totally be worth it.

Luckily, Aunt Cass came back in before Tadashi could pick up on any of those thoughts. She gasped when she saw that both were awake and rushed over to hug them both tightly.

"Itai!" Hiro yelped as the stitches in his arm tugged.

"Sorry, sorry!" Cass squealed back, releasing them just as quickly as she'd grabbed them. "I'm just so glad you're both alright!" She squeezed her own hands together to avoid accidentally hurting either of the boys with another hug. "I just—I can't believe this all happened! And to think, if—if anything worse happened—I didn't even hug you goodbye!"

"Aunt Cass," both mumbled, shocked.

"That's it!" Aunt Cass looked at them both determinedly, "From now on, I'm making sure to always hug you two before any of us go anywhere. Got it?"

They couldn't help but grin at the ridiculous but appreciated demand. "Yes, Aunt Cass."

She smiled back at them both, hands stretching out to both their faces. "Oh, my boys…. I love you."

"We love you, too, Aunt Cass," the boys echoed.

Then, they both yelped as she tugged on their ears. "But if you two knuckleheads ever scare me like that again, you'll be doing double shifts at the café for a month!"

So light 'em up, I'm on fire

A/N: …10,231 words. Of just the story. Holy hell. Um, yeah, so, I think that covered everything I wanted it to, angst, hurt/comfort, the boys reverting to Japanese when sleepy/drugged, the start of Baymax, Megabot, Cass' last hugs, the trackers, and her tugging their ears. Yup, that's everything.

This is sorta my own personal head canon for how all these things started. It came about mostly because I was thinking of how Tadashi and Hiro take such different approaches to the same thing, and so I thought, maybe Baymax and Megabot were both originally thought up from the same event? Thus, this.

I thought this thing was only gonna be ten pages max, but I nearly tripled that by the end. More and more just kept flowing out, and I apparently discovered a love for stream-of-consciousness and no-brain-to-mouth-filter writing. Especially for Hiro. God, those scenes were fun.

I also tried to make sure that the Japanese was either translated or easy to decipher in-context, but in case it wasn't, here's the translations:

Karera wa kite iru. — They're coming.

Kaa-san and Tou-san — mother and father

Mada taizai. Karera wa soto ni shite iru. — Stay still. They're outside.

Shita! Ima! — Down! Now!

Nii-chan, kami, onegai, nii-chan, tasukete! — Big brother, God, please, big brother, help!

Matte. — Wait

Bukiyouna — Clumsy

Ima denai. — Not now.

Kami, itai! — God, hurts!

Kami watashi wa shinu! — God, I'm dying!

Otouto, daijoubu desu ka? — Little brother, are you okay?

Kami, sh—shiranai — God, I don't know

Chotto — Little

Aa — Yes

Doushita? — What's wrong/What's up?

Yokatta! — Thank God/I'm so glad!

Mou! — Geez!

Baka-nii! — Stupid big brother!

Gomen, gomen. — Sorry, sorry.

Itai! — Hurts/Ouch!

Most of that's a mix of what I remember from my Japanese classes and Google translate. I hope it's at least mostly right.

As to any medical stuff in here and how the boys (but Hiro especially) react to pain/concussions/meds, that's mostly based on personal experience (though I've not been shot, so that one's research and pulling from movies and books) since I have frequent flier miles at our local hospital. I've run the gamut of injuries and medicines and surgeries.

Anyways, I hope you guys liked it!