Summary: Once Upon a Time AU. Eighteen-year-old high school graduate and robotics enthusiast Tadashi Hamada prepares for the next chapter of his life—leaving his hometown to attend SFIT, the most prestigious school for technology out there. But his life takes a rather surprising turn when a young, messy-haired teenager with big eyes and even bigger brains tracks him down, claiming to be his long lost brother. Tadashi suddenly finds himself playing a very dangerous game with players more powerful and resourceful than him to remain with his brother and uncover secrets about his family, and one wrong move can land him—or Hiro—in peril.

A/N: Once Upon A Time-ish AU. Fun fact, I'm not really a fan of OUAT. I watched all of season one, lost interest, looked up spoilers on Tumblr, watched the first episode of season five, then never watched it again. But I love Big Hero 6, and I've seen an AU similar to this in another fandom...and well, here I am.

There will be no characters from OUAT, and there won't be any magic. BH6 is all about science, man. And unlike the TV show, where there were constantly scenes from the past intertwined with what was happening in the present, I'll be doing none of that. How the heck do I even write that? I have no idea. And the whole story-line won't be as complex as the show's is. And since season One of the show is all I really like and know, the parallels between this fic and the show will mainly just be that season. If that makes sense.

Disclaimer: I don't own Big Hero 6. Or OUAT.

Warnings: Cussing, possible violence (but will only be very slight),

Chapter One: See You Again

"And every road you take

Will always lead you home"

-Charlie Puth, See You Again

Tadashi Hamada could think of better things he could have been doing on a Friday night. Like getting take-out from that Chinese place two blocks away from his apartment, watching Netflix on his laptop, or even packing up the rest of his belongings for next week. Anything other than working.

He sighed. Working with at the Deli was one thing, although it was just as much of a pain with snarky customers and the smell of weeks-old salami filling the place. But bail bonds...

"Tadashi?" a feminine voice asked.

He glanced up from the neatly folded napkins to spot a tall, gorgeous blond standing in front of him. A tender smile stretched across his face as he stood, walking over to the other side of the table to pull her chair out. "Madelyn, right?"

"That's me." She sat down, a bright smile lighting up her blue eyes. "This place is so nice," she remarked, "you definitely know how to pick a date spot."

Tadashi chuckled and sat back down. Of course, the only reason he picked Marizon's was because Madelyn seemed to have expensive taste, and said herself on her dating website bio that she loved classy first dates. If he were to actually go on a date, it would be at a place that didn't cost three of his paychecks.

"You look beautiful," he said, gesturing to her black dress and curled hair.

She waved her hand in the air. "Oh, you're too kind," she gushed, but he could still see the faint blush dusting her cheeks. "You don't look too bad yourself. I was a little skeptical at first, it is the internet after all."

He nodded in understanding. "Don't worry, I'm not a fifty-year-old creeper."

Madelyn giggled. "I can see that." A waiter stopped by the table and set down two glasses of water. The blond blinked in confusion, but grabbed one of them and took a sip anyway. "So, tell me about yourself, Tadashi. You know, other than being very well-dressed and handsome."

"Well," he shrugged, "I graduated high school as Valedictorian."

Her eyebrows rose up. "Whoa, I'm on a date with a genius," she joked. "What do you plan on going into, then?"

"Engineering, maybe," he tried to sound undecided, despite knowing that he wanted to go into Robotics as long as he remembered. Sure, he wanted her to trust him, but there was no reason to lay out all of his personal internists.

"Ooh, an engineer." She rose her eyebrows. "How nice. Have you and your family picked out a college?"

His smile faltered at the word family.

How nice it would have been, to tour colleges and pick one out with his family.

The blond must have noticed that she hit a nerve, because her eyes widened and words rapidly fell from her mouth. "Oh, I-I'm sorry, I didn't mean to—"

"Don't worry about it," he cut her off. He really didn't feel like having this conversation today. Or ever. Especially with someone he hasn't heard many good things about and who he was probably never going to see again. "How about you? Tell me about yourself."

"Oh! Uh..." she began, drifting off, trying to search for a topic in her head. "Well I—"

"No, wait, let me guess," he cut her off, smiling shyly. "Um...you want to be an actress..." she blinked, as if surprised that he could guess so easily, "and...you were caught drinking at the age of eighteen, twice, and have been running from the law since."

Her jaw just about hit the table.

Tadashi just raised his eyebrows. He got used to the same old dance by this point.

"H-how did you...?" Madelyn stuttered.

"And I guess the worst part about it is your mom," he continued without pause. "She loves you so much that she's willing to bail you out and how do you repay her? You've cut off all contact. That dress looks expensive, by the way. I wonder how you can afford it. Getting into the wrong crowd, Madelyn?"

She was stunned silent for a moment. Her entire posture was stiff, and he watched the panic and realization slowly trickle into her eyes, widening more and more with each passing second. She sucked in a deep breath and glanced around her, as if anyone had heard what words were said moments ago. When she noticed no one was giving them strange looks, she leaned closer to him over the table.

"Who are you?" she hissed in a whisper. The trepidation was still in her eyes, but the tone in her voice gave her a sharper glint that gave the impression she had no fear.

Well, the girl did want to be an actress.

"I'm the guy who put up the rest of the money," he replied nonchalantly. He reached for his glass and took a sip from his water.

She sighed, slopping back into her seat. "You're a bail bondsman," she muttered, more to herself than to him.

He set down the glass and shrugged. "Well, yeah."

Five seconds passed. Their eyes were trained on each other, his showing challenge and question while hers was barely glazed over wariness. Tadashi was about to give the signal to the policemen, who were hiding around the restaurant somewhere, until the blond suddenly snapped into motion.

Standing up, a wave of confidence and strength seemed to hit her when she pushed the table and flipped it on its side. Then, she was bolting, faster than any woman in heels Tadashi has ever seen.

Two things clicked in his minds. One, she really didn't want to get caught; and two, the water spilled and was now on his left leg.

Looking down at the mess, he realized that in the chaos she brought that lasted for a second, he stood up from his chair. The broken plates and glasses she caused better not come out of his pay.

"Really?" He rolled his eyes. Two cops stepped out from the bar area, and Tadashi nodded toward where she ran out. They were out a second later, with Tadashi following closely behind.

And there she was. Outside Marizon's, across the street, turning the ignition of her car and preparing to turn away at any possible moment. When it didn't budge at all, she opened her door a fraction to see the brake keeping her tire from moving. Then she looked up, and the two cops and Tadashi were standing right in front of her.

"Look," she said, the fear now seeping into her voice. All the acting and the facades she had earlier were melting away. "You don't have to do this, okay? I-I can pay you! I've got money," she rushed out. He couldn't tell if Madelyn didn't notice the two policemen, or chose to ignore them in hopes that Tadashi would sympathize would her.

Maybe he would, if she had done what she did for an entire different reason. But...

"That money should go to your mom, to take care of your family," he simply stated. How awful, that people in this world never truly realized the gifts they had that they just turned away.

Perhaps he had hit a nerve. Her eyes turned into stones and her eyebrows set in a pinch. "What the hell do you know about family?"

He froze, hands balled into fists. The cops dragged her out of the car, one pulling out handcuffs while the other held her down on the car. He found himself glad that they were taking care of her, because if it was just him...

He turned from the scene, leaving the cops to do the rest of their jobs. He would get his pay fairly soon.

And when he was alone, with Madelyn too occupied cussing out a storm and the cops telling her the rights she had, was when he answered.

"Nothing," he whispered. He knew nothing.

By the time Tadashi got back to his apartment, the water on his pant leg dried off. He set his Chinese takeout on the kitchen counter before retreating to his room, in search of anything more comfortable than that overbearing suit. When he was comfortably in a plain white shirt and a pair of jeans, he walked back out and plucked the takeout box and chopsticks from the clear, plastic bag and sat on the bar stool.

Alone. Like always.

He stared down at his food. Only half an hour ago, he was itching to finish his job with Madelyn so he could actually eat, his stomach rumbling with barely contained hunger. Now, all of it had slipped away, gone with one sentence.

What the hell do you know about family?

It was ridiculous. She was angry, and probably terrified to have her name tainted with the crimes she committed. All the blond had wanted was to hit a soft spot, a nerve, probably in hopes of escaping or appealing him to her emotions.

She hit a soft spot, alright. A nerve.

It was strange. Some days, he could breeze through the day with smiles and an eagerness to help, while other days, the sight of a mom and dad with their sons or daughters, or an overheard conversation between a group of parents about their kids accomplishments, or even a glance at those family stock photos in the picture frames at the store would create a heavy weight in his chest.

Eleven years. He's officially been an orphan for about eleven years. He should be over it, at this point.

But he wasn't. Not even close. And it certainly didn't help that the memory of his parents were fading more and more with each passing day. The only clear memory he had of them was the car ride to that teenage babysitter.

He also remembered a police officer coming to get him only an hour after. And hearing the news that his parents had died in an accident. And going to the funeral before being shipped away to his first ever foster family. Then the next one, then the next one, then the next one. All the way until his eighteenth birthday, when he was finally an adult and got kicked out of the system to live on his own.

With the passing of his parents, his brother went, too.

Hiro was only three, a toddler that was strangely observant and quiet for his age. Tadashi had never paid much attention to him in the early years of the younger's life, he remembered. For a while, he was pretty sure he even asked his parents to "return" his brother, and he once tried to sell the infant once, too. Well, tried, more like asking three of classmates in pre-school and kindergarten if they wanted Hiro for five bucks.

Tadashi wished he had cherished him more when he was still there.

Things were different after his parents' deaths, though. It hit him then that Hiro was the only family he had left, so he held on to his brother, both of them crying and sobbing after the news had reached them. But that relationship they forged only lasted until the funeral. Then, the social workers had to pry them apart from each other when they left for separate foster homes.

And that was it. The last member of Tadashi's family disappeared, too, screaming and crying and calling out for his older brother while he was dragged out. The last thing the oldest saw was wide, doe eyes brimming with tears before a door shut the three-year-old out. Forever.

He shook his head and dug the heels of his palms to his eyes. Moping around wouldn't help him at all. Hell, he was leaving in a week for the San Fransokyo Institute of Technology! Surely he could make some sort of friends there to ebb away the haunting loneliness he always felt. But sitting there, with no one else in sight and a deafening silence enveloping him whole, he could only mutter a single phrase out into the empty apartment.

"I wish I wasn't alone."

It was a common phrase he would utter in his saddest moments. At this point, he knew that the small saying wouldn't change anything. Everything always remained the same, no matter what.

That's why he blinked when he heard three knocks against the door.

He raised from the chair, glancing curiously at the door. He finished paying the rest of his rent so it couldn't be the landlady, and the young couple that lived next door that always asked to borrow something or another was visiting family, and he hadn't ordered anything online recently. He couldn't think of another reason someone would stop by his apartment, especially at nearly eight in the evening.

Maybe his landlady forgot that this was the last week he was going to live here and decided to hound him for the rent he didn't have to pay anymore. Seemed more likely than the rest.

He threw open the door, glancing down at a teenager that stood in the hallway. A kid with wild, dark hair which seemed to point in every direction and a nervous smile that revealed a gap between his two front teeth. He was rocking on the heels of his feet, eyes wide with what looked like wonder, excitement, and anxiety all blended into one.

"Uhh..." Tadashi stared, but shook his head to snap him out of his surprised trance. "Hey there, can I help you?"

Maybe a new family moved in, and the teenager just wanted to introduce himself—

"You're Tadashi. Tadashi Hamada," the kid rushed out. Not a question, but almost a...revelation, like he couldn't believe what he was seeing.

Tadashi continued to stare. Then he blinked. And the kid was still there, looking up expectantly.

"I'm sorry, who are you?" he asked, eyebrows pinched together. Honestly, who was this kid? Tadashi was practically a nobody here, with no one he could call a friend and not a single person around that would bother to stick around to talk to him, or even learn his name. The teenager standing in the hallway, however...

The boy just grinned.

"Eleven years ago, you were separated from your brother to be put in a foster system." Again, not a question.

His heart stopped dead. How could he possibly know about that?

It was then that Tadashi actually looked into at the younger of the two. Large, doe brown eyes, eerily similar to...

"I'm the brother. Hiro."

Suddenly, the door that shut out his last remaining family member opened again.

A/N: I debated a lot for if I should make the chapter longer or just stop here. You can see what side won.

Chapters won't post too often. I'm waiting for the new TV show to come out in the fall—which will hopefully contain lots of new characters—to get the main plot really going. I want to include any possible new TV show characters, and the show will also hopefully have some insight into the lives of certain characters.

So until then, the chapters I post won't be too long, mostly this length if not a little more or less.

Hope you enjoyed!

-Chris