A/N: So after writing "Laundry Day" and making a bunch of people cry, I wanted to demonstrate that I could write something that wouldn't necessarily have readers in tears. This set of stories is based on Tadashi's discovery of Hiro's bot fighting and the shenanigans that he gets into after sewing GPS trackers into Hiro's clothes. It is also loosely based on the 5 times he did and the 1 time he didn't premise. However, please consider this the one time he didn't.

It must have been close to three in the morning when he first heard the muffled sound of footsteps on the stairs leading up to their third floor bedroom. Hiro, the knucklehead, was finally home. The door creaked open, painfully slow. It was obvious that Hiro didn't want to wake anyone up and he was doing a fairly good job at it. It was just too bad that Tadashi had never gone to bed.

A tiny beam of light was all that made it into the room before Hiro's shadow inched it's way in. He could see the outline of his brother sag a little in relaxation. All that was missing was the sigh that came along with it or maybe the devilish smirk that he pulled off so well. The door clicked closed with an almost imperceptible sound. Hiro crept into the room on his tiptoes, sneaking past the screen that separated their two living spaces without so much as a single sound. He was good, Tadashi would give him that… but not that good.

Tadashi reached across his brother's desk for the lamp. With a tap of the switch, yellow light filled the room and Hiro stopped dead in his tracks halfway to his bed. "Konbanwa otouto." he said with a smirk as he tapped the pen he was holding in his free hand against his knee. "Or maybe I should say ohayo but either way you look at it, you're crawling into the house way too late to have been at… who was it again you claimed to be hanging out with? Nick?"

Hiro's jaw dropped open, doing a fantastic impression of the carp kite that Aunt Cass had flying downstairs outside the cafe. All the color seemed to have drained out of his face though so that was a bit disappointing. Tadashi had hoped that Hiro would at least get a little flustered. "Wh...what are you still doing up?" stammered Hiro.

"I could ask you the same question." Tadashi pointed out as he leaned back in his brother's chair. That's when he noticed the black, spindly limbed robot that was in his brother's hand. Tadashi sat forward immediately, eyes narrowing. There was no way in Hell that Hiro was doing what was usually done with those kinds of bots. Not his little brother!

Hiro saw where he was looking and quickly shoved the robot behind his back. Oh God, he realized abruptly, his brother was bot fighting. The thought must have been broadcast on his face because of the way that Hiro suddenly got all surly. "What are you doing in my chair? Don't you have your own side of the room to haunt?"

"Hiro Hamada have you been out bot fighting?" he demanded through clenched teeth.

"What! No!" scoffed Hiro, doing a spectacular rendition of being mortified at the suggestion. "How can you even think such a thing? Me, your cute, innocent, little brother. I'm only thirteen for God's sake. Where would I even find out about places to bot fight?"

And Heaven help him, Hiro looked perfectly innocent. Right down to the doe eyed look on his face. Tadashi got out of the chair, marched straight up to Hiro, and held his hand out. "Let me see it." he growled.

Hiro looked absolutely hurt at the request. His lip quivered and his eyes started tearing up. Tadashi was not impressed. His hand remained firmly in place. "That's not going to work on me otouto. Let. Me. See. It."

"Oh my God!" snapped Hiro, forgetting that it was, in fact, three in the morning and letting his voice rise. "Why can't you just trust me?"

There was a noise from down the hall. A falter of a snore before the regular tempo resumed again. However, it made Hiro go ramrod straight and all the color drained out of his face again. He clamped his hand over his mouth, forgetting about the bot he was trying to hide. "That's right. Yell a little bit and wake Aunt Cass up. Then you can explain to her how you've been lying about hanging out with friends you don't have as well as telling us both how you managed to pick up bot fighting since graduating high school this past spring." Tadashi told him dryly and without much sympathy.

Hiro dropped the "poor, innocent me" look and replaced it immediately with a glare. "If you knew I wasn't hanging out with friends then why didn't you say something sooner Nii-chan?" Hiro asked, using the old name scathingly. Probably didn't like being reminded that he didn't have any friends, which in all honesty, Tadashi had to admit was a low blow. He should've never said it. However, he was in the middle of something at the moment. He'd apologize for it later.

"Because I did want to trust you." Tadashi told him grimly. "I wanted to believe that you weren't actually out on the streets of San Fransokyo doing something as stupid as bot fighting Hiro."

A grin cracked across Hiro's face, "Oh yeah. And what sort of alternatives did you come up with?"

"Don't change the subject Hiro." Tadashi snapped. "Don't you know how dangerous bot fighting is? It being illegal is only surface of it. Have you seen some of the men that do it? Some of them are hard core mob bosses Hiro."

"Bot fighting itself isn't illegal. Just the betting on it." offered Hiro with only cheekiness that he could manage.

"Between hardened mob bosses and betting on bots, you chose to focus on betting." grumbled Tadashi throwing his hands in the air. "Unbelievable!"

"But Tadashi! I'm so good at it!" whined Hiro. He pulled a huge wad of money out of the pocket of his hoodie. The sight was enough to make Tadashi groan and beat the heel of his palm against his forehead.

"You need a different hobby Hiro and I suggest you find it quickly Hiro." Tadashi threatened him. Hiro met his stare evenly if not defiantly. He crossed his arms over his chest, wrinkled his nose up, and clenched his teeth together. Tadashi sighed, "Hiro… we can talk about this later in the morning. After we've both had some time to sleep and cool off."

Hiro said nothing. Not at first. Then his shoulders sagged. "Alright," he mumbled.

Tadashi was pretty certain that Hiro was probably grateful that he hadn't ran straight for Aunt Cass's room to wake her up upon his discovery. He was also pretty certain that, while Hiro played a good defeatist attitude, it was just that. Play. Hiro's mind was probably working overtime to try and figure out a way to weasel himself out of this one. Tadashi had just given him the rest of the night to do it in. However, Tadashi needed the rest of the night himself to figure out how he was going to deal with Hiro's new bot fighting hobby. They were both going to be laying in bed thinking for a long time.

Tadashi walked past Hiro and ran his hand through his brother's hair. "Goodnight otouto." he said gently as he let his hand trail down to Hiro's shoulder.

There was a sharp intake of breath. A gasp of pain. Tadashi pulled his hand away as though he'd been scalded and whipped around to face Hiro again.

Hiro was hunched into a strange position, simultaneously clutching his shoulder and twisting his back away from Tadashi. Tadashi went ice cold. "Hiro!" he called, darting back around in front of his brother, "What is it? What's wrong?"

Hiro mumbled something unintelligble under his breath. Tadashi laid his hands gently on the side of his face. His brother quickly averted his eyes. "Hiro did someone hurt you?" he asked urgently. His mind was flying back to all the school yard bullies that he'd chased off while Hiro was still in high school. Hiro had always been small and it made him an easy target. Add his filterless mouth into the mix and the kid practically begged for trouble sometimes. Right now, Hiro was acting just like he had when he had when he'd recieved a bad beat down from a bully that Tadashi hadn't been around to scare off. "Did someone hurt you?" Tadashi asked again.

"I fell. It's nothing." muttered Hiro.

"Let me see." he demanded. Hiro looked up at him with a glare. "The way I see it, you can do this one of two ways. Either you take off your shirt and let me see or I pull it right off your back and I'll see it anyways."

Hiro continued to glower at him. However after a moment Hiro pulled backwards and tossed his bot fighting robot on to his bed. "You suck, you know that?" Hiro grumbled as he pulled his shirt over his head.

Something burned in the pit of Tadashi's stomach. Thick, dark purple bruises sprawled across Hiro's back. Somehow, he wasn't sure if the yellow light made them look worse or "better." His tongue felt like lead and his throat felt like it was swelling shut as he looked at the marks on Hiro. "Hiro," he whispered in horror once he finally managed to get his tongue to form words, "who did this to you?"

What he was going to do about it was beyond him. The damage was done. His baby brother had been used as someone's punching bag again and it wasn't like he could just go track down the perpetrators to beat the ever living tar out of them. Hiro shrugged. "I told you I fell."

"Yeah, into someone's fist apparently." Tadashi growled. "Who did this?"

"One of those hardened mob bosses you warned me about." Hiro muttered under his breath.

Tadashi pressed his eyes shut. He couldn't look anymore. Not at the bruises. Not at the look on Hiro's face. He just couldn't look anymore. Without warning, he wrapped his arms around Hiro and pulled him close to his chest. Of course he made sure not to grab hold of the battered part of Hiro's body, but the kid was doing a pretty good job of aggravating the bruises already with all his thrashing. "Aw c'mon Tadashi! Seriously! Let go. Stop being so mushy. It's just a few bruises. They're not so bad." whined Hiro.

Tadashi reluctantly let Hiro go. Hiro was beet red with embarrassment. He quickly shoved his shirt back on. Tadashi went to say something but found he didn't know what else to say. What could he say honestly? Nothing sounded right even in his head. He'd have to think of something though, for in the morning.

Hiro yawned loudly, breaking Tadashi's line of thought. "Go to bed Hiro." he said quietly. "We'll talk about this in the morning."

Hiro didn't say anything. He looked up at Tadashi with wary but tired eyes. At long last, he gave a sigh. "They really aren't that bad Nii-chan." he mumbled before walking over to his bed.

As Hiro began pulling off his shoes and digging under his mass of blankets for his pyjamas, Tadashi started for his own side of the room. He stopped suddenly, remembering something. "Hey, Hiro…"

"Yeah?"

"I'm sorry I said that you didn't have any friends. I shouldn't have ever said it."

"It's alright. Just go to bed. I'll see you in the morning."

"Night Hiro."

"Night Tadashi."

Tadashi pulled the screen that separated their own spaces closed. He could see the vague outline of Hiro until the lamp was turned off. Tadashi laid in bed, thinking more about the bruises and the men who'd given them to him than anything else. He laid in bed for a long, long, long time. Just trying to figure out what he would say and do in the morning. Whether or not he would tell Aunt Cass or just keep quiet so she didn't have to worry. By the time he finally succumbed to exhaustion, there was only one thing Tadashi was certain about. Hiro would never again be beat up because of his bot fighting. Never again.