Stay awhile
Two weeks, as Hiro counted, was when he and Tadashi started to speak like civil beings-- Or even friends. Two weeks to start seeing Tadashi on the street more, to see him hanging around outside more, and for Hiro himself to stay out by his mailbox, even when he had no mail, to meet Tadashi for a daily conversation.
He found out more about the boy, about how much he liked robotics, and how he used to build little toy bots with his dad, just as Hiro did. One time over the span of a conversation, Hiro still had a robot he had made with his parents; and even sprinted into his house and back out just to show Tadashi.
He was being a complete and utter big lug. He didn’t mean for him to be so attached to the younger boy, and he surely didn’t think people at the cafe would start to assume they were brothers.
When Hiro heard one of the customers say, “Aw, what cute brothers!” He couldn’t help but choke on his coffee and spill it over the table, and Tadashi dropped the rag he was cleaning with. Aunt Cass laughed, waving her hands in the air as if trying to catch her breath as the other two rushed to clean up the mess. She had corrected the customer, who gasped and apologized for it.
Tadashi was the second one to laugh it off, but Hiro couldn’t quite muster enough to even giggle at the stranger. He gave them a small smile and quickly looked away, finding himself blushing.
“I can’t believe it,” Tadashi said after the customer had left, leaving the three of them in the cafe, “We don’t even look that much alike. I have a long nose and big ears, Hiro’s nose is rounder, kinda like a button.”
He pressed his nose up in a rather more pig-like manner, glancing at Hiro with a grin. Hiro had peeked at Tadashi, giving him a half hearted glare before rolling his eyes, “When did button noses start look like pig-nose demon children?” He asked, sarcasm thick in his voice.
The boy laughed, covering his mouth with his hand and shrugging, “When I started speaking to you, I’m slowly turning you into my minion.”
Aunt Cass then broke in, “Excuse you, you’re both my minions. Now finish cleaning up, I’ll be getting upstairs and starting supper. Wings tonight!” She chimed, taking her apron off as she walked around the counter and hung it up, “Hiro, are you staying?”
Hiro looked at Cass, then to Tadashi who was now beaming, looking at Hiro like a child in a candy store. He sighed, shoulders relaxing and smiling, “Sure, Cass, I’d love to try some of your wings.”
“Yes!” Tadashi shot his arms up in victory, then bringing them back down with a small jumping motion. It seemed he was doing a sort of.. Dance.
Cass and Hiro couldn’t keep themselves from snickering at the other’s reaction, which caused a red to spread across Tadashi’s face and turn away, cleaning at the table next to him to keep himself busy.
“Great,” Cass hummed, going over to Hiro and ruffling his hair, “They’ll be the best wings you’ve ever had, they’ll melt your face off!”
With that, the woman trotted off upstairs. Hiro smiled, touching his head for a moment before standing up. He looked at Tadashi, who continued to face away and cleaning at the table like his life depended on it, before he turned around to the back tables and began cleaning off any garbage.
“Hey,” Tadashi spoke, just above a whisper as he played with the rag, looking at the other.
Hiro tipped his head up, looking over his shoulder towards Tadashi with a small smile, “Yeah?” He asked, showing him he had his attention as he continued cleaning.
“Uhm.” The boy cleared his throat, crossing his arms, “You.. You know what botfighting is, right?”
Hiro stopped his movements, looking over at Tadashi with curious wide eyes. He gulped, “Yeah.. I heard about it.”
Tadashi then smiled nervously, “Well-- I know you know more than that.. That’s where you go sometimes..”
“Tadashi--” Hiro tried to get a word in, but soon the boy was up in his space, causing him to stumble back into a table.
“I want you to take me once.”
“Excuse me?” Hiro asked. He was surprised, because the boys nature was so kind and genuine, he seemed like he wouldn’t want to hurt a single thing in this universe, but here he was. Asking him to take him to an illegal botfight.
“I want to go botfighting, at night, with you.” Tadashi seemed almost short of breath, his wide doe eyes looking up at the older boy.
Hiro rubbed the back of his neck, looking at the stairs that could be his escape, but he couldn’t resist looking down at Tadashi again. No one could stop looking at Tadashi’s big round eyes, full of hope and knowledge, or his smile that fit on his face so naturally, how his front teeth dug into that smile as his hands would cup each other, holding on for dear life.
Hiro couldn’t say no.
“...A-Alright.” So he didn’t, “I’ll take you. Later.” He pointed at Tadashi when he said later, almost pressing his index finger against the boy’s nose to make his point clear.
Tadashi took it as an advance to step back, his grin wide, “Great! We’ll go after Aunt Cass is asleep. Around 10:30pm, for extra good measure.”
“I mean--”
“Boys!” Cass called from the stairs, “The wings are done and set out! Time to eat! I’ll clean whatevers left in the morning!” She then headed off, her soft humming fading as she went into the house.
“I guess that settles it.” Tadashi spoke, his smile turning soft as he looked at Hiro. He set the rag on the counter, walking over to the stairs before looking back, “Are you coming?”
Hiro was still at loss of what happen. He took a deep breath and nodded his head, “Y-Yeah. Yeah, I’m coming.” He could feel his stomach knot a bit, but he threw whatever garbage he had picked up into the trash can near the table and followed the younger boy upstairs.
--
Dinner was relaxing. Hiro and Tadashi joked most of the time, Aunt Cass loved having Hiro around and made it specially clear that he had to come over to supper more often, because Tadashi seemed to be more talkative when he was around.
That caused the young man to blush and giggle at the woman’s words. Hiro didn’t think Tadashi was much of himself around him, because he always tried to seem so strict and in-line, but with his Aunt, Tadashi would giggle and be relaxed. Hiro even noticed that Tadashi had a small lisp when he talked.
Mochi was the best part of the night, though, in Hiro’s book at least. He’d always seen the cat on the stairs, but never dared to walk up to the small house pet and give him the attention the animal wanted from the owners. With Hiro inside the house now, Mochi found himself strutting up to Hiro who relaxed on the kitchen chair and jumped right into the boy’s lap, naming that his spot for the night, which was rewarded with small coos and pets from both Hiro and Aunt Cass.
It was around 10:15 when they had all ended up on the couch, talking with the TV at a random show humming in the background. Cass was the first to start nodding off, raising her arms and yawning. Hiro saw the small glance Tadashi gave his aunt; desperation.
“I think I’m going to head off..” She said, scratching the back of her head and stretching.
“Alright, Cass, I’ll lock up.” Tadashi answered all too eagerly, standing up and walking to the stairway. He took the keys from the the holder and smiled.
Cass gave him a look, but shook her head to erase any thoughts, “Alright, sweetie.. Night.” She yawned once more before standing, tapping her outer thigh as she head upstairs. Mochi lifted his head, meowing and jumping from Hiro’s lap, waddling after the older woman.
“So.” Tadashi spoke after he heard the soft click of his Aunt’s door closing, leaning on the couch behind Hiro and his head hanging to the side.
“So..” Hiro copied Tadashi, looking at the other and setting his head against his shoulder, a smirk on his lips.
Tadashi rolled his eyes, “You’re not tired, are you?”
“I dunnnnooo..” Hiro pretended to yawn and stretch before quickly wrapping his arms around Tadashi’s shoulders, tearing him down onto the couch and laughing. “Ah, now I have a pillow.”
Tadashi snorted, “Aaaaw gross, I don’t want your greasy hair on me get off of me--”
As Tadashi finished, Hiro pulled the boy close and rubbed his head against his chest, causing the smaller one to groan and move his arms, pressing his hands against Hiro’s head and pushing him away.
“Nasty!” Tadashi laughed, wiggling in Hiro’s hold, “Now I need to take three extra showers tomorrow!”
“You only shower every other day? I’m not the gross one here.” Hiro retorted, a smile spread across his face, letting go of the smaller boy.
“I don’t need to take a shower everyday.” Tadashi grinned, sitting up and getting into Hiro’s face, “Unlike someone I know.”
Hiro rolled his eyes, “Thanks, fish breath.”
“Rude.” Tadashi puff his bottom lip out, a small noise of distress in his throat, “But that’s not the point right now. Are we going to go or what?”
“Wow, you’re really excited for this, huh?”
--
Six fights.
Hiro and Tadashi were in 6 botfights, one of which they ‘lost’, and the other 5 which they had won. It was easier to play others with Tadashi around, pulling off the defeated act better than Hiro (which he had experienced before).
They ended up running out when one of the botfighters yelled in annoyance, nearly throwing their controller at Tadashi’s head before Hiro grabbed his arm and drug him into the alley way. The sounds of bot’s fighting was a lot more muffled there, and it gave them a chance to actually talk.
“I can’t believe how easy that is!” Tadashi said over a small cheer from the crowd, his hands clenched together in fists, a large grin on his face.
Hiro couldn’t believe he saw the boy smiling so big, he hasn’t seen Tadashi even this excited when he found that twenty on the street. Was it the rush he was feeling? As Hiro did this for the first time he made megabot and brought him to the fight, and beat his first battle.
“It’s even easier when you get your own bot to fight with.” Hiro gave Tadashi a wink, putting megabot into his bag before hanging it back over his shoulder.
Tadashi had opened his mouth to say something, but was stopped by the sound of something hitting the trash cans just a few feet from them then fall to the ground and caused a loud crash. The small boy instead made a squealing sound, running into Hiro and hanging on his sweatshirt, and Hiro did the same to Tadashi.
“You two..” A voice called, it was the man from the fight before, a look of anger spread across his face. This time, he wasn’t sitting alone in the arena. No, this man had four or more other fighters with him, and they all shared the same expression.
Huh, Hiro’s gonna need to tell Gogo about that one.
“Hiro--” Tadashi whispered to the other, his hold tightening.
“We are so dead.” Hiro responded, louder than he had intended.
The man laughed now, something sick in his voice as he spoke, “You don’t know how right you are.”
Hiro suddenly kicked it into high gear, wrapping his arm around Tadashi and lifting him up with one movement. He booked it on his feet, heading down the opposite way in the alley way, towards the road.
He could hear the other’s feet hitting the ground behind him, making only push himself harder. Usually he would have given up, but with Tadashi in his arms, he knew they’d do something even worse, and he promised himself to keep this kid safe, and dammit that is what he was going to do.
He skidded to an almost stop near the end of the alley way, causing him to jolt forward and land on his hand. He growled, a small “Hiro!” being heard next to him.
Hiro ignored the small sting on his scrapped hand, pushing off the ground and running again.
How long he was running for, he didn’t know, but his legs were burning and his arms were shaking as he still held the small boy close to him. He could feel Tadashi hiding his face deeper within Hiro’s chest as he slowly started to stop, looking behind him. When he didn’t see anyone, and the pathway was clear, he knew he could come to a complete stop.
He fell to his knees, his face sweaty and his body aching. He loosened his hold and Tadashi pushed himself from Hiro.
“Hiro!” Tadashi called, getting onto his knees along with Hiro, cupping his damp cheeks with a frown, “Why didn’t you just tell me to run?”
Hiro panted, leaning forward against Tadashi’s hands, “W-well.. I didn’t think..” He admitted.
“Anyone can see from that!” Tadashi growled out, before turning back to sincere, “You brought water in your bag, right?”
Without waiting for an answer, Tadashi moved behind Hiro and started to dig through his bag. After a few moments, the younger male retrieved a water bottle, sighing in relief. He opened the bottle before presenting it to Hiro from behind, who graciously took the bottle and started to chug it down.
Tadashi leaned on the other’s back softly, pressing his head against Hiro’s cheek, “Don’t chug it too fast, you’ll get a stomach ache.”
“I already ache everywhere else, what would it matter now?” Still, Hiro stopped himself and wiped at the water that was dripping from his mouth.
Tadashi smiled, reaching up and ruffling Hiro’s hair lovingly, “..Uh-- Wanna get a cab or something?”
“... Yeah.”