A Little Genius's Struggle

By: Tsuki no Shijima

Summary: Even a little genius like Hiro has to struggle when dear big brother is sick. (A one-shot story to answer HardyGirl17's request)

Disclaimer: I don't own Big Hero 6

Warning: Beware of typos and bad grammar. English is NOT my main language! I have this bad habit of not realizing my mistakes on my stories until days or even months after publishing the story.

-oOo-

"Cough! Cough! Cough! Ahchooo!"

Hiro's eyes fluttered open. He sat up and looked at Tadashi's room side. He furrowed his brows and tilted his head. 'Tadashi? Is he sick?'

He swung his legs and stood up, walking to Tadashi's room side. "Tadashi?" He saw Tadashi, lying on his bed, inside a cocoon he made with his blanket. His face was flushed. And he also looked like he was shivering out cold. He approached him and put his palm on Tadashi's forehead.

He heard Tadashi groaned as he opened his eyes. "Hiro? What are you doing?" Hiro looked at him, "Checking your temperature. And it's really hot! Do you have a thermometer with you?"

"Yeah, just check inside my drawer. I have a spare one."

Hiro checked his drawer and found one. After that, he put it inside Tadashi's mouth. A minute had passed, when he checked the number, he was shocked, "Oh my God, Tadashi! It's 102,5°F! No wonder you make a cocoon." Tadashi chuckled hoarsely, "It's fine. I'll get better soon. Now just go back to sleep. And don't come near me for now. I don't want you to get sick, either."

"And how are you going to take care of yourself? Aunt Cass is away for the baking contest until next week, remember?" Hiro reminded him, which it made Tadashi frowned, "What time is it?"

Hiro looked at the alarm clock on Tadashi's bedside table, "It's 4.42."

"Just go back to sleep, Hiro. I'm going back to sleep now," Tadashi said, closing his eyes. And just in a few seconds, he was already asleep.

-oOo-

"Cough! Cough!"

"Dashi, are you okay?"

Tadashi opened his eyes slowly, greeted by the sight of his baby brother sitting on a chair beside his bed. "I'm okay. Just cou-ahchooo! Coughing and sneezing. What are you doing there?"

"Sitting."

"How long have you been there?"

"Since you went back to sleep."

"What time is it now?"

"11.54."

He frowned. That meant Hiro had been sitting beside him for almost seven hours. Something struck his mind, "You didn't skip your breakfast, did you?" Before Hiro could answer him, his stomach grumbled. Hiro blushed and Tadashi frowned again. "Hiro, why did you skip your breakfast?"

"I'm worried about you. You're sick, aunt Cass is not here, and I don't know what to do," he said, looking down sadly. Tadashi was surprised, but then he smiled and ruffled Hiro's hair. "Don't worry, I'll get better soon. Now go down and eat something. Don't skip lunch, too! Or do you want me to cook you something?"

"No! You're sick, Tadashi! I should be the one who cook you something, not the opposite!" Hiro said as he stood up and put his hands on his waist. Suddenly, he realized something. "Oooh, I can cook you something to eat. You haven't eaten anything yet and you need to drink a medicine, too!"

"Hiro, you don't need to-" Before he could finish his sentence, Hiro said, "I'll be right back! Just sleep until I get back!"

Hiro immediately went downstairs to the kitchen. Tadashi's mouth gaped open, then it changed to a smile, seeing the attention given by his baby brother when he was sick like that. 'I never thought being sick could be this good, sometimes,' he thought. He closed his eyes again and went back to sleep until his baby brother came back.

Thirty minutes later, he felt someone was shaking him to wake up. He woke up and saw Hiro, grinning at him with a bowl in his hands. He sat up and asked, "What's that?"

"Porridge. Well, uh, it's an instant porridge I found in one of the kitchen's cabinets. So, I uh.. umm.. just warmed it up for you," Hiro said, looking a bit shy. Tadashi chuckled hoarsely at his baby brother's cuteness, but the coughs were intruding. "That's what you'll get if you laugh at me again!" Hiro pouted.

He panted heavily after the coughing, "Yeah, yeah, sorry." He raised his hand to take the bowl from Hiro, but got swatted by Hiro's hand. "Oh, no. I'll feed you."

Tadashi raised his brow, "Hiro, I can eat it by myself."

"Nope! I'll feed you and that's final!"

"Alright, then," Tadashi sighed in retreat. Hiro grinned widely. He took a spoonful and blew it softly. He fed the porridge into Tadashi's mouth. But when it was about the third spoon, Tadashi suddenly sneezed, and the porridge on the spoon burst onto his face.

"Eeeeeewwwww, it's gross!" Hiro took a tissue and wiped the porridge on his face. Tadashi winced at this and apologized, "Oops, sorry."

Hiro only sighed, "Let's just finish this porridge so you can drink your medicine and go back to sleep." Tadashi nodded. When the porridge was all eaten, Hiro put the bowl on the bedside table and gave Tadashi a glass of water. He took a sip while Hiro held out a supposedly-medicine on his hand.

Tadashi looked at that supposedly-medicine and examined it. It looked really weird. From all of the time he took care of Hiro when he was sick, he never saw a medicine like that. "Hiro, what is this?"

"Uuumm, medicine?"

"What medicine?"

"I don't know. I just found it in the medicines cabinet."

He narrowed his eyes suspiciously at the supposedly-medicine. "Hiro, why don't you go downstairs and bring this 'medicine' container to me?"

"Sure."

And after Hiro gave the 'medicine' container to him, he was really shocked to death, "Hiro, are you trying to kill me?!"

"Of course, not! Why did you say that?"

Tadashi held the 'medicine' container close to Hiro's face, "This is not a medicine, Hiro! This is a rat poison!"

"WHAT?!" Hiro shouted in shocked. He couldn't believe it. His ignorance of medicines almost killed his older brother! He slapped his forehead and groaned, "I'm sorry, Dashi. I swear I didn't know if it was a rat poison. It was in the medicines cabinet!"

Tadashi looked at him. He looked sad and desperate. He knew this was Hiro's first time to take care of someone sick. His dear baby brother already tried hard enough and he didn't have the heart to hurt him. He sighed, and smiled at him as he ruffled his hair. "Don't worry. I understand. Now, can you go get me the real medicines? Just read the containers and search medicines for flu and cough syrup, okay?"

Hiro nodded weakly and went downstairs to get the real medicines. He looked down at the rat poison in his hand and muttered, "Why the hell was this poison in the medicines cabinet?"

-oOo-

Hiro was finally able to find the right medicines with Tadashi's instruction. He gave them to Tadashi. When he was about to reach the empty bowl, he saw Tadashi was shivering more in his 'cocoon'. "Dashi, do you need more blanket?"

Tadashi nodded, "Yeah, I guess so."

Hiro stood up and walked to the closets to grab some blankets. But he ended up taking all of the blankets out and brought them to Tadashi's room side. "Hiro, I think you brought too many blankets there."

"Just shut up and sit! I'll wrap the blanket for you," he huffed, putting down the blankets. Tadashi only sighed and sat up. Hiro started to wrap a blanket around Tadashi. He wrapped another one. Then another one.

"Hiro."

Hiro didn't listen. He wrapped another blanket on him.

"Hiro."

Hiro was still focused on wrapping the blanket.

"Hiro!"

Tadashi tried to call him, louder. But I seemed that Hiro was lost in thought while wrapping those blankets around him.

"HIRO!"

"What?!" he snapped at him, feeling annoyed. But he immediately jumped out of the bed, startled to see a bundle of mummy ball in front of him. After a few seconds, he realized that it was just Tadashi, wrapped up in too many layers of blankets. Tadashi just glowered at him. "Oops, I guess I overdid it," he grinned sheepishly.

"Can you please unwrap some of them? I only need one more blanket, not these many. And I can hardly breathe in these," Tadashi said in a muffled voice as all of his body, except his eyes, was wrapped in those layers of blankets. Hiro unwrapped the blankets, leaving only two blankets around Tadashi's body.

Hiro put the last blanket he unwrapped on the chair. "Are you sure two are enough? You're still shivering," worry was still evident in Hiro's voice.

"It's enough. I'm going back to sleep now. The medicines are starting to make me feel sleepy," he reassured him and laid down.

Hiro was still not convinced, but he let it slide, for now. And he was still standing beside Tadashi's bed, watching him till Tadashi fell to sleep.

-oOo-

SPLASH!

"Aaaaaaah!" Tadashi was forced to wake up when he felt something wet and cold fell onto his face.

"I'm sorry!"

It was Hiro's voice. Tadashi opened his eyes and grabbed whatever it was from his face. It was a wet washcloth. But it was too wet, like it wasn't even squeezed first before it landed on his face.

"Are you trying to compress me with these?"

"Eeerrr.. yes."

Tadashi groaned. "Hiro, if you're trying to compress me with this wet washcloth, at least squeeze it first."

Hiro kept on apologizing while wiping his big brother's wet face. Tadashi sighed. "It's alright. This is your first time taking care of a sick person anyway. By the way, I'm hungry. Still have a warm porridge for me?"

"Yup. It's on the table beside you. And I will feed you!"

Warmth surged into Tadashi's heart. His baby brother was adorable with all the attention he gave to him. How lucky he was to have a baby brother like Hiro.

He saw Hiro sat on the chair and took the bowl into his hands. But, before he started feeding him, he said, "Don't sneeze again while I'm feeding you, okay?!"

Tadashi laughed at his. "Don't worry, I already feel better. The medicines did their job properly. See? I'm not coughing or sneezing again!"

"But you still have a fever. I check your forehead before and it's still hot."

"Yeah, and still have a mild headache, too. But don't worry. I'm sure I'll get better tomorrow."

Hiro sighed. "Okay, then. If you say so."

After the feeding and drinking the medicines session, Tadashi had gone back to sleep again. Hiro took the empty bowl and glass to downstairs and walked to the kitchen sink. He looked around the kitchen area, and saw the mess he had made since he started making foods for him and his big brother. He didn't know how to cook, so he just put in everything he knew and they ended up as disasters. In the end, he found instant porridges in one of the kitchen cabinets and warmed them up for Tadashi while he ate the ramen cups.

And more than that, when he was washing the dishes, he just realized that he could actually see some recipes and even some cooking tutorial videos in internet to cook the foods for them. He groaned as he slumped down and buried his face in his hands. He was born a genius and yet, he didn't even realize that until a few moments ago.

"Unbelievable! So much for being a genius!"

He let out an exasperated sigh, "I never thought that taking care of someone would be this hard."

And since that day, Hiro appreciated more on what Tadashi did in taking care of him.

-oOo-

The next day, Tadashi had recovered from his flu. But unfortunately for Hiro, now it was his turn to stay in bed as he caught his big brother's flu from taking care of him yesterday. He was coughing, sneezing, and shivering out cold. The fever and headache were hurting his head as well.

"Hey, baby brother. Need more blanket?"

He opened his eyes slowly, "Yeah, just one, plea-" he stopped when he saw Tadashi, grinning widely at him, with a dozen of blankets in his arms.

'Oh God, please save me!'

-oOo-

Omake:

Tadashi was feeding Hiro with a bowl of soup on his hand when he suddenly remembered something, "Hey, Hiro?"

"Yeah?"

"When I was in the kitchen earlier, I saw a pot with scary thick grey water and pieces of several kinds of vegetables in it. What's that thing?"

Silence.

Silence.

Silence.

"It was supposed to be a vegetable clear soup for you yesterday."

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"You know what, Hiro? I think you're more dangerous than the rat poison you accidentally gave to me."

-oOo-

Author's Note: Somehow, I like the end part of this story. It's kinda funny for me. Lol. And this is also my first time to write sick fanfic like this so I really hope it's not disappointing. By the way, I wrote this one at midnight so please forgive me if there are some mistakes here. Until next time~