zerotohiro | Some Legends Are Told, Some Turn To Dust Or To Gold [CEREALIA INBOX]

[That's enough to knock him out of it, but he ends up giving Tadashi a mildly sheepish look.]

Uh, actually? I'm not gonna be the one fighting Ruby. You and Yang are. [Oh god how to explain this...] It's just that you and me always do everything together, and Yang and Ruby fight on the same team at home, too, so we thought it'd be kinda fun to challenge you two against the two of us? Just to change things up a little.

[ hiro, do you want to know how you look when you give tadashi that sceptic look with an arched brow? yeah. enjoy that. ]

Okay.

That's. That's cheating.

[He's making that face right back.]

It is not cheating. Have you seen Yang fight? She can totally kick my ass. [Hiro don't swear around your brother. This is part of why you should have quit botfighting a while ago!] And it's more fair 'cause it's one huntress and one inventor per team.

[ HIRO, DO YOU KISS YOUR BROTHER-- YOUR AUNT WITH THAT MOUTH???? ]

Or this is just your plan to even be closer to Ruby.

[ he's onto you!!! ]

That was not part of the plan! [SHOVING. He's just pushing his hand on Tadashi's face to shut him up.] Shut up, we came up with this before I even liked her like that.

[Which is exactly why he's blushing. Totally.] I wouldn't have to fight you and Yang to get closer to her. So...so there!

Ow! [ swatting that hand away!! don't be rude. ]

You don't have to get all defensive on me!

Then stop making fun of me! [Ah yes, the sound of the bratty younger brother in his natural habitat.] It's bad enough that you programmed Baymax to talk to me about puberty! [Yeah. Because he's not letting that go for a while either.]

What? [ due to his surprise, the pitch of his voice may have gone an octave higher. ]

He what?

[Oh shit.] ...didn't...you know about that? [His own voice is starting to squeak a little because now he's wondering if he's severely going to regret this.] He powered on by himself because I dropped Megabot on my foot and he started diagnosing me and trying to talk about "flowering into manhood"...or something.

[TADASHI LOOK AT WHAT YOUR CREATION'S DONE.] You didn't know he was programmed to do that?

Why—

[ TADASHI USE YOUR WORDS. ]

Unbelievable. [ he runs his palm down his face. ] If you were in pain, then he shouldn't have.

Something else must've triggered it.

I mean it hurt when the bottom half of my robot fell on my foot. And then two shelves of action figures, but I told him it was a zero on his pain scale and he kept following me anyway. [In retrospect, he knows exactly why Baymax kept following him, but it's still pretty weird to him even now.] And then he scanned me and that's what he came up with.

[ please excuse him as he sits his bum down on his former bed. ]

Right. That definitely wasn't it.

I mean, if I hit you on the head for an hour, he wouldn't tell you that you're in pain because of... [ okay, he can't help but snort just thinking about it. ] puberty.

[The bed's big enough it's fine. Hiro's sitting cross-legged and staring at Tadashi with mild contempt because seriously. Seriously.] I don't know, maybe you should just ask him. [It's mostly sarcastic. Puberty is not funny, bro, it's awkward and dumb and really hard when your older brother's dead and you can't ask questions.] He said he didn't find any injuries but that my neurotransmitter levels indicated mood swings and somehow that equalled puberty and it's your fault because you programmed him.

[A beat.] ...other than that? He's been really good about his diagnoses and his nursing capabilities. Even better after I increased the field for his scanner. He's still the best thing you've ever made.

[ well, mood swings are a sign of puberty, so baymax isn't entirely wrong. but you know, he'll just keep that in mind for now and not ask about it any further. the compliment about baymax takes away what uneasiness he was having. ]

Yeah. [ he rests his elbows on his lap as he leans forward, looking at some random object in front of him. ] I don't think I could ever top that.

[ because he can't anymore, really. ]

The dragon's pretty cool, and there's a lot of Baymax in Demo anyway. You could try to top Baymax if you really wanted to, but I don't think you will either. You've got time to prove me wrong though. [It's casual, something that seems to lend itself well to his idea that he's not going to quit until he finds a way to bring Tadashi back. Not that Tadashi knows that.] You were right though. He's helped a lot of people already. He was a really big help over the last couple of weeks.

[He's aware this conversation's probably wasting Tadashi's time and it's just sort of him babbling, but...it's still nice. It's still something he's never really had the chance to tell Tadashi about his invention and with everything happening in Cerealia maybe he just wants some time to themselves to pretend things are the way they used to be.] He's still learning new things all the time, too. He picks up fast. [A slight grin.] He even tried giving Fred's butler a fistbump when we went to his house.

[ he shakes his head slowly, a wistful look on his face. honestly, if he wasn't so good at hiding his feelings, he'd be covering his face with his hat by now. but he's got a better control of his emotions than that. he doesn't look at hiro yet, though. ]

The dragon's cool, yeah. And Demo's helpful, but he isn't like Baymax. And I didn't make him to be a replacement for Baymax.

[ and. wait—hold up. tadashi blinks a couple of times, looking like a lost puppy when he focuses on his younger brother again. ]

Fred has a butler?

[ didn't that guy live under a bridge? ]

[For the best since that'd definitely clue him in that something wrong. As it is, he's not really sure since he's also not really looking at Tadashi while he's talking about all of this just in case.] I never said he was a replacement for Baymax, just that there's a lot of him in Demo. There're just some people who can't be replaced.

[Demo can't replace Baymax, Baymax can't replace Tadashi. They can do a good job mimicking each other though. When Tadashi faces him again Hiro nods like it's not a bit deal to share this revelation.] His name's Heathcliff and he's pretty okay. Fred's house--you know those neighborhoods on the other end of town by the piers? The ones with the reeeeally huge mansions and stuff? Fred lives in one of those. They have a family-owned island and a helicopter and everything. Kinda makes more sense why he just hangs around campus and works as the mascot.

Huh.

[ not what he was expecting from fred, to be honest. and while he and fred were friends, he didn't exactly know much about fred's living conditions. it's not like they were invited to fred's mansion all the time, anyway. they mostly just hung out at school or at the lucky cat. ]

You wouldn't have guessed from the way he talks and acts.

Considering this is the guy who hasn't done laundry for six months? Tell me about it. [It's weird tot hink that he knows a little more about Tadashi's friends than Tadashi does...but that's because they're Hiro's friends now, isn't it?]

Do you think Fred and Go Go are ever going to show up? [No mention of Wasabi or Honey since they're both in the Nexus...though it's debatable if Tadashi knows that.]

It might be better if they didn't.

[ that's what he thinks, anyway. more people don't need to be subjected to ceres' bs. and he does know of wasabi' situation, but not honey's. ]

Why?

I know it would be better but...I dunno. Just thinking about it I guess. If they did that'd be all of us.

Aren't you missing Honey Lemon?

Not exactly. [Pause.] Remember what Mosley said about us being footnotes?

[ well then. he doesn't need hiro to explain any further. ]

You serious?

Pretty sure it was the same timeframe. Athena said she met her but she hadn't seen her in a couple of months.

Some Legends Are Told, Some Turn To Dust Or To Gold [CEREALIA INBOX]

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