Chapter 21
Shortly after Hiro had sent off the Notice of Civil Claim, Tadashi received a phone call.
Hiro was in Tadashi’s house at the time. They’d both just been in the kitchen, leaving the vegetable curry to simmer, both a little bit drunk from their evening drinks. Hiro had just been endlessly voicing all of the stupid ways Tadashi could propose to his partner, Tadashi humouring him. It was the most normal either of them had felt together in a while. It was a throwback to the good ole days when they could just talk and unwind and mercilessly take the mickey out of each other, like brothers did.
And then Tadashi’s phone rang.
Tadashi shook head, barely suppressing a grin, and he actually shooshed Hiro as he answered the call with a tipsy flourish, “Hel-lo, Tadashi Hamada speaking.”
Hiro chortled into his wine glass, almost choking on it as he thought of yet another hilarious way for his brother to propose to Mei. He shifted his weight from foot to foot, impatient for Tadashi to finish the call so he could tell his big brother that he should present an engagement ring to Mei just as they got onto a roller coaster, seconds before it took off. And then, at the end, he should pretend to have lost the ring somewhere on the second corkscrew. Hilarious.
But something about his brother’s suddenly intense expression pushed the thought right out of his head. The look on his brother’s face was… sobering, to say the least.
Hiro wondered if it was work-related. Tadashi received a lot of work-related calls now that morphed his smile into a grimace or a frown, just like that, but… this was different. Something was off. Usually Tadashi tried to hide the fact that his reputation was worsening, that his robot nurses weren’t doing too well, and he always ended up discreetly excusing himself from the room, or at the very least politely turning his back to present company. But he didn’t. He just stared at Hiro, his eyes sharp and slitted and hostile.
Hiro went numb to think that his brother was staring at him like that… He wondered if it wasn’t work at all. Maybe it was…
He swallowed.
Maybe it was something else.
Takahiro…
But then her name was uttered. And Hiro understood. Tadashi’s eyes weren’t threatening; they were protective.
“Sorry Aunt Cass,” Tadashi muttered, not sounding sorry in the slightest. A noise like scratching stole Hiro’s attention and he moved his eyes to the bench Tadashi was leaning on it with one hand. His brother’s nails weren’t long, but they still dug into the wooden countertop, grazing it, clawing it. “You might be family, but I don’t care about that anymore. This is Hiro’s decision.”
A pause. The air was still. Hiro barely breathed.
He flinched as Tadashi actually hissed, “I am not talking him out of anything.”
Hiro put down his glass. He couldn’t trust himself not to drop it. He couldn’t quite feel his body. He didn’t know if that was just the alcohol or the nerves.
For a while, Hiro just stood there and listened. He couldn’t parse any of Cass’ words; he could only faintly hear the shrill, beseeching tone of her voice. He could understand the reason for her unexpected call through Tadashi’s increasingly heated responses. She was trying to convince Tadashi to convince Hiro to drop the charges against her. To change his mind about taking her to court. To not do this.
It might’ve worked on Tadashi once, but it didn’t work anymore.
He started shouting.
“Just hang up,” Hiro begged quietly, his wide eyes imploring his brother, because she wasn’t worth it – she wasn’t worth engaging when she was like this, she wasn’t worth losing his temper over. “Just hang up on her, Tadashi, please.”
Tadashi didn’t hear him. Once cold and detached, now he looked like he saw red.
“No– you listen,” he shouted into the phone and Hiro’s mouth fell open, terrified and yet unable to move. He should’ve left the room. He should’ve forced Tadashi to end the call before he could say something he’d regret and give her extra ammunition, but Hiro couldn’t move. “I am not going to let myself be manipulated by you anymore and you are not turning me against my own brother. I love Hiro, and I am going to stand by him as I should. We’re not even settlinglet alone abandoning this case. It’s going through, whether you’re ready to face up to what you did or not. See you in court, Aunt Cass.”
Tadashi smacked his phone down on the counter, the motion sending a jolt through Hiro. Tadashi lowered his head, sighing, groaning, frustrated, and pressed his fingers between his eyes like there was a migraine centred there, right there. Like he was praying to a higher power to give him strength.
The good mood was ruined. Hiro tried in vain to bring it back.
“B… Bit dramatic, weren’t you?” he said, attempting a smile.
Tadashi’s hand shot out to grab his younger brother’s arm, and Hiro yelped as he was pulled into a crushing embrace. Tadashi was muffled as he whispered harshly into Hiro’s shoulder, his words going far too fast for Hiro to even hear what they were, and it was all he could do to pat and rub his older brother’s back. He strained to listen, managing to catch what had sounded like, “I love you,” and Hiro latched onto that, clung to it, and he began to whisper, “I love you too, I love you too,” over and over, until his brother had found enough solace to ease his grip. To let him go.
Hiro could already tell that court was going to be fun.