Chapter 10: Tadashi Is Here

Hiro was leaving yet another bot fight, with a bunch of cash that he had won. Tadashi was just looking out for any thugs that might be after his little brother. "I can't believe I won all this money. Aunt Cass will be so proud of me. Well, until she finds out where it got it, that is."

Tadashi only scoffed. He sincerely hoped that once Aunt Cass had enough to get by on, that this would all be over. He really didn't want him sneaking out any more than he already had been. "Hiro, please stop this." He said, knowing full well that he wouldn't be heard.

Hiro resumed walking, while counting his money. Tadashi only sighed. Keeping Hiro safe in this state most definitely wasn't easy, and Tadashi had known that long before he had started. Well, at least he had enough free time to do it in. It's not like he would be moving on anytime soon. He still didn't know how he should do it, or if it was even possible. Until he could find a way to move on, he decided that he would continue to watch Hiro and make sure that he stayed out of trouble.

Suddenly, something on his arm caught his attention. The orange glowing around it seemed to glow brighter for some reason. Tadashi had absolutely no idea what it meant, but it didn't seem to be doing anything negative, so he just let it be. Hiro continued walking, so Tadashi followed. They hadn't yet left the alleyway, so that meant that Tadashi still had to keep an eye out. However, they seemed to be alone. "You're just lucky that hey haven't followed us." Tadashi casually remarked, looking over his shoulder.

Once he looked back at Hiro, however, the younger boy was frozen in his place. Tadashi raised an eyebrow. "Hiro?"

It took another minute, but soon, Hiro started to slowly turn himself around, facing whatever was behind him. Tadashi looked over his should once more, but saw no one. Then a possibility occurred to him. He turned back to his brother, who hadn't moved an inch. "Hiro...can you see me?"

It took all the courage he could muster to nod a couple times. "Y-You can see me. How is this possible?"

Hiro didn't have an answer for his question, however, as he only uttered one word. "T-T-Tadashi."

Tadashi only found himself smiling. "Y-Yep, it's me."

And within the next second, Hiro let everything out. "H-How is this possible?! How can you be here right now? I thought you were dead! You can't be here, you have to be somewhere else doing, well, whatever, so how can you be here?!"

It was obvious that Hiro's logical brain couldn't handle something like this, so Tadashi was trying his best to calm him down. "Easy Hiro, I'm just as surprised as you are."

Hiro suddenly didn't seem to be able to form words, so he started sputtering gibberish instead. "Hiro, listen to me, let's just go home, and I'll explain everything. Or at least I'll try."

After Tadashi had explained what had happened since the fire, Hiro was lying on his bed, clutching his pillow, trying to comprehend everything, including the existence of ghosts. Hiro had never particularly believed in such things, so his logical mind was having a real hard time with this. Tadashi only watched and waited for his brother to respond.

When he never did, Tadashi pulled something out of his bag and started eating it. Hiro could hear the munching sounds behind him, and he figured Tadashi must have been eating something, which seemed weird since he didn't know that ghosts could eat. Curiously, he slowly turned around to his older brother, only to find that he was eating the very same vanilla covered nuts that he had left on his grave on Valentine's Day. "T-Tadashi?"

As Hiro had finally looked his direction in what felt like forever, Tadashi smiled. "Hey, did you know that ghost can still eat?"

Hiro slowly swung his legs over and sat up, curious about everything that ghosts could truly do. "And here's another fun fact. Each ghost gets their own bag after they die, so that they can carry stuff inside it."

He reached inside of it, and pulled out the Baymax plushy that Hiro had made just for him. "Y-You kept that?"

Tadashi nodded. "Well of course. It was a gift from you after all."

Just then, something occurred to Hiro. "Wait, were you the one who put that forget-me-not on my nightstand?"

Tadashi nodded. "Yup."

"A-And, you were the one who protect me from those bot fighters, weren't you?"

"Exactly."

"S-So that means...you were there for me the entire time, weren't you?"

Hiro suddenly felt something inside him swell up. Suddenly, he just couldn't stop his tears from falling. Tadashi immediately rushed over and wrapped him in his warm embrace. Hiro returned it. They sat like that for a while, until the sun had already gone down.

Hiro was tired, so he was planning on going to bed early, which seemed pretty out of character for him. Now that he knew Tadashi had been around him this entire time, thing would be different now, and he knew that. He had no idea what was going to happen, or how they were going to make this work. The important thing is that, even after the fire, Tadashi never left him. He had actually kept his promise after all.

Tadashi was sitting on his bed and watching as Hiro got ready to go to sleep. "Are you sure you're gonna be okay?" Tadashi asked.

Hiro nodded. "Yeah, I'll be fine, although this is going to take some getting used to."

Tadashi sighed. "Yeah, that much is obvious."

"It's just still kind of hard for me to fathom all this, but I guess it makes sense that you would be there for me, even after...well, you know."

"Well, I did promise that I would never leave you didn't I?"

"Well, yeah, but soon, you'll have to move on."

"I know, but before I do, I can at least spend some time with you."

Hiro smiled. "I...seem to be dong well, for someone in this situation."

Tadashi nodded. "Yeah, you are."

A few minutes later, Hiro had turned off the lights and he was already in bed, although he couldn't sleep because there was something on his mind. He slowly turned over towards his big brother. "Hey, um, Tadashi, can I sleep with you tonight?"

His face felt heated just asking this question, however, Tadashi smiled. "Of course, Hiro."

And so, Tadashi got into bed and held Hiro in his arms, and in each other's presences, they slowly drifted off to sleep.

The End.

I would like to thank:

MagicWriterK

YellowSpeedyNinja

Mana

Allanna Stone

Eltigre221

TheNerd12

Thanks for making this story what it is. Sayonara, Minna