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Description
Contains spoilers from Big Hero 6! This takes place after the events of the movie.

Memory File:

“Come in!” You announce when you hear a knock on your lab room door. Looking up from your circuit board you were currently soldering on, you watch as a young raven haired boy pops his head in. You smile in greeting before placing your soldering pen on its stand. “Hey, Hiro! What’s up?” You had developed a sisterly fondness for the younger Hamada brother, taking up the responsibility with your other friends to watch out for him, as Tadashi would have wanted you to.

Hiro, though seeming to be in relatively good spirits seems hesitant to come into your lab. “Hey (Name).”

Picking up on this strange behavior, you take off your safety glasses and step away from your work bench. “What’s wrong?” you ask, getting concerned, as you walk toward him.

He glances away from you and scratches the back of his neck, “Uh, nothing really, I just…” his voice brakes off. He reaches his hand into the pocket of his shorts before he pulls out a USB thumb drive. “I was going through some of the files on Tadashi’s computer when I found these.” He holds the memory stick out to you.

You frown slightly and tilt your head as you reach out to take it from him. “What are they?” you ask for more clarification, your heart starting to pound as your mind races with possibilities of what could be stored on the device.

“A bunch of video files. You know how Tadashi always liked to record himself when he needed to rant about stuff. I found an entire folder of videos dedicated to you.”

Your heart skips a beat at that. “To me?”

“Yeah. The folder was locked, but curiosity got the better of me, and I quickly worked my way around that. I only watched the first one, I swear. I don’t know if he would have ever shown them to you, I think they’re all about stuff he was too afraid to tell you. But, it didn’t seem right to keep these away from you.”

You feel tears well up in your eyes as you clutch the thumb drive to your chest. In a rush of emotions, you throw your arms around Hiro’s small form and pull him in for a hug. “Thank you, Hiro!” you tell him sincerely.

He wraps his arms around your torso and squeezes. “I miss him so much, (Name),” he whispers.

You press your cheek against his hair. “I know. I do too.” With one last squeeze, you both pull away from each other. You brush some hair off his forehead that had gotten a little smothered due to your hug and give him a small smile. “Now go do great things, Little Bro.” You say, using your personal nickname for him. Hiro hadn’t been very fond of you when things between yourself and Tadashi had started to get serious. Hiro was worried that Tadashi would start losing interest in him if he had a girlfriend. After a lot of bugging, Tadashi finally filled you in on the problems he was having with Hiro. You took matters into your own hands, and went to talk to Hiro while Tadashi was in class. You explained to Hiro that you weren’t there to take his big brother away from him, and that Tadashi wouldn’t love him any less just because he was in love with someone else. After your talk, Hiro began to trust and respect you, and you both quickly developed a sibling-like love for each other.

He smiles back, despite the previously melancholy mood. “Okay, tell me if you get any good ones,” he replies, nodding toward the thumb drive in your hand.

You laugh and nod, “Will do.” You walk with him to the door of your lab. He waves goodbye before heading down the hall to his own lab space. Closing the door, you lean against it with a sigh and look at the memory stick in your hand. It takes a few more moments to build up the courage to go over to your laptop. With a deep breath, you sit in your computer chair and boot it up. Once your desktop background appears on the screen, you plug in the thumb drive. A window automatically pops up, showing you what is on the storage device. There is only one folder titled TH_MemoryFiles. Using the mouse pad on your laptop, you move the cursor over the folder, but then hesitate before double clicking on it. You stare at the screen for a long moment. One last deep breath and you click it open. You gasp in surprise as the page fills up with a long list of videos. You look at the dates they were made, and are even more surprised when you find out the first video was from about 18 months ago.

Your heart beat pounds in your ears as you click on the first video. As the video comes up, Tadashi’s face fills up your computer screen. “Hey, so this is kind of awkward, but I’ve got a lot of things I need to get off my chest, and this was the best way I could think of to do it.” He pulls off his baseball cap and runs a hand through his thick hair, before putting the cap back on. He then exhales a deep breath out of his lips, before focusing on the camera. “So, there is this girl, (Name), and she is so amazing, and smart, and funny, and I can’t stop thinking about her. She started at SFIT last semester, and managed to get a spot in lab at the beginning of this semester. That’s pretty amazing because it took me a whole year before I was able to get into Callaghan’s lab. Anyways, I’m pretty sure my feelings for her are surpassing friendship. I really want to ask her out on a date, but I don’t know how to, or if she’ll even say yes. I wish I had the courage to just go up to her and flat out say “(Name) I really like you, want to go out on a date this Friday?” Girls like it when guys are direct right?” He sighs and rests his head down on the desk in front of him, causing his hat to slide off. “But she’s so beautiful; she would never in a million years think of me as more than a friend.” With one last sigh, Tadashi lifts up his head and gives the camera a lopsided, sad smile, “I guess that’s all for now.” The screen then goes dark, indicating the end of the video.

You don’t even realize that you’re crying until your nose makes you sniffle. You blink, and then move to grab a tissue from the box nearby. You watch a couple more videos, enraptured by Tadashi. It feels so good to hear his voice again. Listening to the way he would talk about you makes your heart flutter. You skip a couple videos, in order to get to a date you remembered well. It was a day you would never forget, your anniversary. After scrolling through the list to get to that particular date, you realize that Tadashi made two videos that day. You click on the first one, holding your breath in anticipation.

Tadashi’s face once again appears on the screen, a determined glint in his eyes. “I’m going to do it today. I’m going to ask (Name) out and she is going to say yes.” The determination in his eyes fades a little as worry settles in. “What if she doesn’t say yes?” He shakes his head and gets his determined look back. “No, it will be okay. I Googled “Signs that a girl might like you back” and (Name) follows 13 out of the total 18 signs.” His determination deflates once again and he slumps in his chair. “Man, I sound like such an idiot! I can’t do this!” He groans and takes off his hat, then tosses it somewhere off camera. “No! Tadashi, you are going to do this, and it’s going to be great!” He pushes himself out of his chair and marches toward his lab door. The video continues running for several minutes, only showcasing the empty lab.

You check the time stamp on the video and notice there is still a couple minutes left. Putting your cursor over the timing bar, scenes from the video show up and you find out that at the end of the video Tadashi comes back into his lab. You click on the time just before he returns.

Tadashi bursts through the door; the biggest, goofiest smile you have ever seen is planted on his face. “She said yes!” he shouts to the empty room, and proceeds to do a little victory dance, apparently having forgotten that the camera is still rolling. “(Name) and I are going on a date! She actually wants me to take her out to dinner tonight! Man, when she asked if this was a date or as friends, I thought for sure she would say no, but she didn’t! I’m taking the girl of my dreams out to dinner tonight!” Tadashi froze in his merriment and panic began to settle in. “I-I’m taking the girl of my dreams out to dinner!” he yells, not quite as happy as he had been before. “What- what was I thinking?! What am I going to wear?! Where am I going to take her? What are we supposed to talk about? Aw man, am I going to mess this up?” He ran his hands through his hair, ruffling it up a little. With a sigh, he glances over to his computer desk. He jumps and his eyes widen, “Oh shoot, did I leave that on?” he runs over to his desk and ends the video.

You click on the following video, still on the same day.

Tadashi’s face appears once again, but the background has changed. You recognize it as the walls of his room. It appeared that Tadashi was sitting on his bed and probably just had his laptop open in front of him. His hair was damp, like he just got out of the shower and he was dressed in pajamas.

“So I got back from a date with (Name) a short while ago, and I was too excited to wait until morning to do this in lab. Hiro is downstairs watching a movie with Aunt Cass, so I have the room to myself right now. The date was perfect! (Name) looked amazing in her dress and she even curled her hair. The entire night, I couldn’t take my eyes off of her. We talked and laughed, and at the end of the night, when I walked her to her apartment, I just couldn’t stop myself, I-I kissed her.” His cheeks begin to turn pink as he scratches the back of his neck. “I had a momentary panic attack, thinking that she would push me off of her and slap me, but instead… She wrapped her arms around my neck and kissed me back. I don’t think I’ve ever been so relieved in my entire life.” He chuckles softly to himself. “After we pulled back she called me bold. I just responded by telling her I had been waiting a really long time to do that. I don’t know how I was able to pull that off so smoothly, but I’m glad it happened the way it did. We’re going on another date this Sunday, I can’t wait!”

You laugh as you remember your first kiss with Tadashi. You had not been expecting it at all, a kiss on the cheek maybe, but not on the lips. You were so glad he did though, his lips had been warm and soft against yours, and you didn’t want to pull away. He had been such a gentleman the entire night and did his best to make sure you were comfortable and having fun. You skip a few more videos, promising yourself to come back and watch them later.

The video you start up shows Tadashi with his hat on backwards and bags under his eyes. He rubs his left eye with the palm of his hands and lets out an aggravated sigh. “So, Hiro is being a complete knucklehead, right now. I finally got to tell him about (Name), and he throws this temper tantrum and locks himself up in the garage. He’s somehow barred the door closed and won’t let me or Aunt Cass inside. I don’t know what his problem is; he won’t even talk to me now.” He groans and puts his head in his hands. “What am I supposed to do? I really, really like (Name). Actually, I’m pretty sure I’m falling in love with her, but if Hiro doesn’t like her… How can I keep dating a girl that my little brother despises? And I know Hiro. He is not going to change his mind. I have no idea how to deal with this. I want to be able to bring my girlfriend home to have dinner with my family, or to just hang out.” He sighs once more. “What am I supposed to do?” He looks off into the distance for a while. He then shakes his head and ends the video.

Your heart clenches as you remember how much pain Tadashi had been in those few weeks. He had always looked like hell, with rumpled clothes and tired eyes. You eventually had to just corner him in his lab and force him to tell you what was going on.

You start the next video. Tadashi is looking at the camera with wide eyes, looking a little confused and weirded out. He is once again inside his bedroom. “So, something incredibly strange just happened, and I don’t quite know what to make of it.” He pulls his cap off and scratches at his head. “My girlfriend all of a sudden walks up the stairs into my bedroom, but instead of being there to see me, she’s here to hang out with my brother. Hiro actually looked excited to see her, too! Seriously, what on Earth is going on? The knucklehead had been texting on his phone all morning. Never would have guessed it was (Name) he was texting. They’re down in the garage playing video games. Didn’t even invite me,” he pouted. “Last week, Hiro was completely against the idea of me having a girlfriend. Now the two of them are practically conspiring together. Do you know what (Name) said to me when she walked up? “Hey, Tadashi!” That’s it. Just a smile and a wave, and then she was completely focused on my little brother!” He huffs at the camera and crosses his arms over his chest. He then groans and rubs a hand over his face. “Wow. Am I seriously jealous of my thirteen year old brother? Yes, I do believe I am.” He stares off into space for a moment. “I need to go see what they’re up to.” He places his hat back on his head and ends the video.

Before you get the chance to move on to the next video, your stomach growls angrily at you. You look at the time at the corner of your computer screen and realize it’s passed 2:00 in the afternoon. You have completely skipped lunch. You feel torn in deciding to leave your lab to get food, or to watch a few more videos. In the end you decide to watch one more video before heading out for lunch. You scroll to the bottom of the file, wanting to watch the last video. It says that he made it the morning of the science fair. Just after you click on it, your lab door bursts open. You quickly press pause and look up to see all your friends pouring into the room.

“Hey (Name). We haven’t seen you all morning!” Wasabi announces upon their entrance.

“Yeah, what have you been doing in here?” Fred asks.

“We were concerned, because you never came out to eat lunch,” Honey states.

“Whoa, is that Tadashi?” Go Go asked as they gather around your desk to see what you had been doing.

“You’re still watching the videos?” Hiro asks.

You nod. “I was just about to watch the last one before heading out to grab some food.”
“Well, what are you waiting for? Start it up!” Fred states, getting excited. They all gather around behind you, so they can get a good look at your screen monitor.

“Um, okay,” you hesitate a little, feeling strange about letting them watch such personal videos. But these were Tadashi’s closest friends, too. They also deserve the right to see him talking and alive once again. You press play and the video starts up.

Tadashi is, once more, up in his room. He smiles into the camera with excited eyes, “Today is the big day. Hiro is presenting his microbots to Callaghan tonight. (Name) is trying to keep him calm downstairs by making him eat some breakfast. He pretends that he’s not freaking out, but he is. Now, I know that tonight is supposed to be all about him and it will be, but there is something else that has been weighing pretty heavily on my mind. Aunt Cass had me make a delivery downtown yesterday, and on the way back, a jewelry store caught my eye. I pulled over and went inside, and when I came out… I had this with me.” He holds a small, black, velvet box up to the camera. You feel your heart nearly explode in your chest. He opens the box and looks at the object inside, but the angle he holds it at doesn’t allow the camera to see what it is. “It’s kind of simple, but when I saw it, all I could think about was (Name). Our anniversary is still a few months away, but I can’t imagine my life without her. Is it too soon to ask? I’ve kind of had this question in the back of my mind for a while now, even before I found this ring.” Tadashi pauses his speech and becomes alert as something happens off camera.

“Tadashi!” You hear your own muffled voice coming from the video. Tadashi jumps into action when he realizes that you are walking up the stairs into his bedroom. He nearly drops the box in his haste to find a place to hide it. He ends up stuffing it somewhere behind him, probably under his pillow, then quickly turns around and puts on an easy going smile. “What are you doing?” you hear yourself ask.

“Nothing,” he responds quickly, his voice coming off a little squeaky. He clears his throat and repeats, “Nothing. I’m just chilling on my computer. What’s up?”

“The whole gang is downstairs and you’re up here being antisocial.”

He chuckles at you. “Give me five minutes, and I’ll meet you down there.” You see your hand quickly dart across the screen as you reach over his laptop to snatch his hat off his head. “Hey!” he yells, startled.

“Make it two minutes and you can get your hat back.” You hear the pitter patter of your footsteps and you run off and head back down stairs.

Tadashi’s startled look softens into a smile as he stares dazedly at the spot you just vacated. After a few seconds he snaps out of it and turns to grab the small box once more. “That was pretty close. I’m going to have to find a good place to hide you.” He turns once more to the camera. “Here’s to hoping she says yes,” he gives the camera a wink before ending the video.

The room is dead silent for a full five minutes. It doesn’t even seem like any of your friends are breathing as each of you try to process what you just saw.

You hear Honey Lemon sniffle, before she speaks, “Oh my gosh, (Name)…”

Your heart clenches as sympathy radiates out of all of them. You let out a shaky breath and slowly turn in your computer chair to face them. “Guys, its okay,” you manage to get out. You try to give them a small smile, but it doesn’t reach your eyes.

Fred is the first to grab your hand and pull you out of the chair to give you a hug. The rest of the group comes in and you all wrap your arms around each other. Your eyes tear up, but you don’t cry. You still can’t believe that he was going to ask you to marry him. Of course you would have said yes. There is no doubt in your mind that you would have lived the rest of your life with Tadashi, if you were given the chance.

“We have to find that ring,” Go Go stated after you all pulled back.

Your friends all started to agree, but you began to protest. “No guys, really. It’s okay,” you try to tell them.

“No, (Name). It belongs to you,” the young Hamada boy responds. “You would have said yes, wouldn’t you?”

You smile softly and run a hand through his messy hair. “In a heartbeat.”

“Then it’s yours,” he commands. “And we’re going to find it.” When he gets that determined look on his face, he looks exactly like his older brother.

“Alright,” Honey Lemon claps her hands together to get everyone’s attention. “Wasabi and I will go check Hiro’s lab, Go Go and Fred, check here in (Name)’s lab, (Name) and Hiro should go back to Hiro’s house to check the bedroom. When we finish up here at school, we’ll head over to your house to check everywhere else. This is so exciting!”

“Yeah, it’s like a treasure hunt!” Fred exclaims.

They each start to disperse to go look in their respective areas. Hiro links his arms with yours and pulls you out the door. “Come on. I think I have a few ideas on where he could have hidden it.”

Your heart pounds as your love for this boy grows even more. “Thank you so much, Hiro,” you tell him sincerely.

He grins up at you. “What are little brothers for?”

Description
Contains spoilers from Big Hero 6! This takes place after the events of the movie.

Memory File:

“Come in!” You announce when you hear a knock on your lab room door. Looking up from your circuit board you were currently soldering on, you watch as a young raven haired boy pops his head in. You smile in greeting before placing your soldering pen on its stand. “Hey, Hiro! What’s up?” You had developed a sisterly fondness for the younger Hamada brother, taking up the responsibility with your other friends to watch out for him, as Tadashi would have wanted you to.

Hiro, though seeming to be in relatively good spirits seems hesitant to come into your lab. “Hey (Name).”

Picking up on this strange behavior, you take off your safety glasses and step away from your work bench. “What’s wrong?” you ask, getting concerned, as you walk toward him.

He glances away from you and scratches the back of his neck, “Uh, nothing really, I just…” his voice brakes off. He reaches his hand into the pocket of his shorts before he pulls out a USB thumb drive. “I was going through some of the files on Tadashi’s computer when I found these.” He holds the memory stick out to you.

You frown slightly and tilt your head as you reach out to take it from him. “What are they?” you ask for more clarification, your heart starting to pound as your mind races with possibilities of what could be stored on the device.

“A bunch of video files. You know how Tadashi always liked to record himself when he needed to rant about stuff. I found an entire folder of videos dedicated to you.”

Your heart skips a beat at that. “To me?”

“Yeah. The folder was locked, but curiosity got the better of me, and I quickly worked my way around that. I only watched the first one, I swear. I don’t know if he would have ever shown them to you, I think they’re all about stuff he was too afraid to tell you. But, it didn’t seem right to keep these away from you.”

You feel tears well up in your eyes as you clutch the thumb drive to your chest. In a rush of emotions, you throw your arms around Hiro’s small form and pull him in for a hug. “Thank you, Hiro!” you tell him sincerely.

He wraps his arms around your torso and squeezes. “I miss him so much, (Name),” he whispers.

You press your cheek against his hair. “I know. I do too.” With one last squeeze, you both pull away from each other. You brush some hair off his forehead that had gotten a little smothered due to your hug and give him a small smile. “Now go do great things, Little Bro.” You say, using your personal nickname for him. Hiro hadn’t been very fond of you when things between yourself and Tadashi had started to get serious. Hiro was worried that Tadashi would start losing interest in him if he had a girlfriend. After a lot of bugging, Tadashi finally filled you in on the problems he was having with Hiro. You took matters into your own hands, and went to talk to Hiro while Tadashi was in class. You explained to Hiro that you weren’t there to take his big brother away from him, and that Tadashi wouldn’t love him any less just because he was in love with someone else. After your talk, Hiro began to trust and respect you, and you both quickly developed a sibling-like love for each other.

He smiles back, despite the previously melancholy mood. “Okay, tell me if you get any good ones,” he replies, nodding toward the thumb drive in your hand.

You laugh and nod, “Will do.” You walk with him to the door of your lab. He waves goodbye before heading down the hall to his own lab space. Closing the door, you lean against it with a sigh and look at the memory stick in your hand. It takes a few more moments to build up the courage to go over to your laptop. With a deep breath, you sit in your computer chair and boot it up. Once your desktop background appears on the screen, you plug in the thumb drive. A window automatically pops up, showing you what is on the storage device. There is only one folder titled TH_MemoryFiles. Using the mouse pad on your laptop, you move the cursor over the folder, but then hesitate before double clicking on it. You stare at the screen for a long moment. One last deep breath and you click it open. You gasp in surprise as the page fills up with a long list of videos. You look at the dates they were made, and are even more surprised when you find out the first video was from about 18 months ago.

Your heart beat pounds in your ears as you click on the first video. As the video comes up, Tadashi’s face fills up your computer screen. “Hey, so this is kind of awkward, but I’ve got a lot of things I need to get off my chest, and this was the best way I could think of to do it.” He pulls off his baseball cap and runs a hand through his thick hair, before putting the cap back on. He then exhales a deep breath out of his lips, before focusing on the camera. “So, there is this girl, (Name), and she is so amazing, and smart, and funny, and I can’t stop thinking about her. She started at SFIT last semester, and managed to get a spot in lab at the beginning of this semester. That’s pretty amazing because it took me a whole year before I was able to get into Callaghan’s lab. Anyways, I’m pretty sure my feelings for her are surpassing friendship. I really want to ask her out on a date, but I don’t know how to, or if she’ll even say yes. I wish I had the courage to just go up to her and flat out say “(Name) I really like you, want to go out on a date this Friday?” Girls like it when guys are direct right?” He sighs and rests his head down on the desk in front of him, causing his hat to slide off. “But she’s so beautiful; she would never in a million years think of me as more than a friend.” With one last sigh, Tadashi lifts up his head and gives the camera a lopsided, sad smile, “I guess that’s all for now.” The screen then goes dark, indicating the end of the video.

You don’t even realize that you’re crying until your nose makes you sniffle. You blink, and then move to grab a tissue from the box nearby. You watch a couple more videos, enraptured by Tadashi. It feels so good to hear his voice again. Listening to the way he would talk about you makes your heart flutter. You skip a couple videos, in order to get to a date you remembered well. It was a day you would never forget, your anniversary. After scrolling through the list to get to that particular date, you realize that Tadashi made two videos that day. You click on the first one, holding your breath in anticipation.

Tadashi’s face once again appears on the screen, a determined glint in his eyes. “I’m going to do it today. I’m going to ask (Name) out and she is going to say yes.” The determination in his eyes fades a little as worry settles in. “What if she doesn’t say yes?” He shakes his head and gets his determined look back. “No, it will be okay. I Googled “Signs that a girl might like you back” and (Name) follows 13 out of the total 18 signs.” His determination deflates once again and he slumps in his chair. “Man, I sound like such an idiot! I can’t do this!” He groans and takes off his hat, then tosses it somewhere off camera. “No! Tadashi, you are going to do this, and it’s going to be great!” He pushes himself out of his chair and marches toward his lab door. The video continues running for several minutes, only showcasing the empty lab.

You check the time stamp on the video and notice there is still a couple minutes left. Putting your cursor over the timing bar, scenes from the video show up and you find out that at the end of the video Tadashi comes back into his lab. You click on the time just before he returns.

Tadashi bursts through the door; the biggest, goofiest smile you have ever seen is planted on his face. “She said yes!” he shouts to the empty room, and proceeds to do a little victory dance, apparently having forgotten that the camera is still rolling. “(Name) and I are going on a date! She actually wants me to take her out to dinner tonight! Man, when she asked if this was a date or as friends, I thought for sure she would say no, but she didn’t! I’m taking the girl of my dreams out to dinner tonight!” Tadashi froze in his merriment and panic began to settle in. “I-I’m taking the girl of my dreams out to dinner!” he yells, not quite as happy as he had been before. “What- what was I thinking?! What am I going to wear?! Where am I going to take her? What are we supposed to talk about? Aw man, am I going to mess this up?” He ran his hands through his hair, ruffling it up a little. With a sigh, he glances over to his computer desk. He jumps and his eyes widen, “Oh shoot, did I leave that on?” he runs over to his desk and ends the video.

You click on the following video, still on the same day.

Tadashi’s face appears once again, but the background has changed. You recognize it as the walls of his room. It appeared that Tadashi was sitting on his bed and probably just had his laptop open in front of him. His hair was damp, like he just got out of the shower and he was dressed in pajamas.

“So I got back from a date with (Name) a short while ago, and I was too excited to wait until morning to do this in lab. Hiro is downstairs watching a movie with Aunt Cass, so I have the room to myself right now. The date was perfect! (Name) looked amazing in her dress and she even curled her hair. The entire night, I couldn’t take my eyes off of her. We talked and laughed, and at the end of the night, when I walked her to her apartment, I just couldn’t stop myself, I-I kissed her.” His cheeks begin to turn pink as he scratches the back of his neck. “I had a momentary panic attack, thinking that she would push me off of her and slap me, but instead… She wrapped her arms around my neck and kissed me back. I don’t think I’ve ever been so relieved in my entire life.” He chuckles softly to himself. “After we pulled back she called me bold. I just responded by telling her I had been waiting a really long time to do that. I don’t know how I was able to pull that off so smoothly, but I’m glad it happened the way it did. We’re going on another date this Sunday, I can’t wait!”

You laugh as you remember your first kiss with Tadashi. You had not been expecting it at all, a kiss on the cheek maybe, but not on the lips. You were so glad he did though, his lips had been warm and soft against yours, and you didn’t want to pull away. He had been such a gentleman the entire night and did his best to make sure you were comfortable and having fun. You skip a few more videos, promising yourself to come back and watch them later.

The video you start up shows Tadashi with his hat on backwards and bags under his eyes. He rubs his left eye with the palm of his hands and lets out an aggravated sigh. “So, Hiro is being a complete knucklehead, right now. I finally got to tell him about (Name), and he throws this temper tantrum and locks himself up in the garage. He’s somehow barred the door closed and won’t let me or Aunt Cass inside. I don’t know what his problem is; he won’t even talk to me now.” He groans and puts his head in his hands. “What am I supposed to do? I really, really like (Name). Actually, I’m pretty sure I’m falling in love with her, but if Hiro doesn’t like her… How can I keep dating a girl that my little brother despises? And I know Hiro. He is not going to change his mind. I have no idea how to deal with this. I want to be able to bring my girlfriend home to have dinner with my family, or to just hang out.” He sighs once more. “What am I supposed to do?” He looks off into the distance for a while. He then shakes his head and ends the video.

Your heart clenches as you remember how much pain Tadashi had been in those few weeks. He had always looked like hell, with rumpled clothes and tired eyes. You eventually had to just corner him in his lab and force him to tell you what was going on.

You start the next video. Tadashi is looking at the camera with wide eyes, looking a little confused and weirded out. He is once again inside his bedroom. “So, something incredibly strange just happened, and I don’t quite know what to make of it.” He pulls his cap off and scratches at his head. “My girlfriend all of a sudden walks up the stairs into my bedroom, but instead of being there to see me, she’s here to hang out with my brother. Hiro actually looked excited to see her, too! Seriously, what on Earth is going on? The knucklehead had been texting on his phone all morning. Never would have guessed it was (Name) he was texting. They’re down in the garage playing video games. Didn’t even invite me,” he pouted. “Last week, Hiro was completely against the idea of me having a girlfriend. Now the two of them are practically conspiring together. Do you know what (Name) said to me when she walked up? “Hey, Tadashi!” That’s it. Just a smile and a wave, and then she was completely focused on my little brother!” He huffs at the camera and crosses his arms over his chest. He then groans and rubs a hand over his face. “Wow. Am I seriously jealous of my thirteen year old brother? Yes, I do believe I am.” He stares off into space for a moment. “I need to go see what they’re up to.” He places his hat back on his head and ends the video.

Before you get the chance to move on to the next video, your stomach growls angrily at you. You look at the time at the corner of your computer screen and realize it’s passed 2:00 in the afternoon. You have completely skipped lunch. You feel torn in deciding to leave your lab to get food, or to watch a few more videos. In the end you decide to watch one more video before heading out for lunch. You scroll to the bottom of the file, wanting to watch the last video. It says that he made it the morning of the science fair. Just after you click on it, your lab door bursts open. You quickly press pause and look up to see all your friends pouring into the room.

“Hey (Name). We haven’t seen you all morning!” Wasabi announces upon their entrance.

“Yeah, what have you been doing in here?” Fred asks.

“We were concerned, because you never came out to eat lunch,” Honey states.

“Whoa, is that Tadashi?” Go Go asked as they gather around your desk to see what you had been doing.

“You’re still watching the videos?” Hiro asks.

You nod. “I was just about to watch the last one before heading out to grab some food.”
“Well, what are you waiting for? Start it up!” Fred states, getting excited. They all gather around behind you, so they can get a good look at your screen monitor.

“Um, okay,” you hesitate a little, feeling strange about letting them watch such personal videos. But these were Tadashi’s closest friends, too. They also deserve the right to see him talking and alive once again. You press play and the video starts up.

Tadashi is, once more, up in his room. He smiles into the camera with excited eyes, “Today is the big day. Hiro is presenting his microbots to Callaghan tonight. (Name) is trying to keep him calm downstairs by making him eat some breakfast. He pretends that he’s not freaking out, but he is. Now, I know that tonight is supposed to be all about him and it will be, but there is something else that has been weighing pretty heavily on my mind. Aunt Cass had me make a delivery downtown yesterday, and on the way back, a jewelry store caught my eye. I pulled over and went inside, and when I came out… I had this with me.” He holds a small, black, velvet box up to the camera. You feel your heart nearly explode in your chest. He opens the box and looks at the object inside, but the angle he holds it at doesn’t allow the camera to see what it is. “It’s kind of simple, but when I saw it, all I could think about was (Name). Our anniversary is still a few months away, but I can’t imagine my life without her. Is it too soon to ask? I’ve kind of had this question in the back of my mind for a while now, even before I found this ring.” Tadashi pauses his speech and becomes alert as something happens off camera.

“Tadashi!” You hear your own muffled voice coming from the video. Tadashi jumps into action when he realizes that you are walking up the stairs into his bedroom. He nearly drops the box in his haste to find a place to hide it. He ends up stuffing it somewhere behind him, probably under his pillow, then quickly turns around and puts on an easy going smile. “What are you doing?” you hear yourself ask.

“Nothing,” he responds quickly, his voice coming off a little squeaky. He clears his throat and repeats, “Nothing. I’m just chilling on my computer. What’s up?”

“The whole gang is downstairs and you’re up here being antisocial.”

He chuckles at you. “Give me five minutes, and I’ll meet you down there.” You see your hand quickly dart across the screen as you reach over his laptop to snatch his hat off his head. “Hey!” he yells, startled.

“Make it two minutes and you can get your hat back.” You hear the pitter patter of your footsteps and you run off and head back down stairs.

Tadashi’s startled look softens into a smile as he stares dazedly at the spot you just vacated. After a few seconds he snaps out of it and turns to grab the small box once more. “That was pretty close. I’m going to have to find a good place to hide you.” He turns once more to the camera. “Here’s to hoping she says yes,” he gives the camera a wink before ending the video.

The room is dead silent for a full five minutes. It doesn’t even seem like any of your friends are breathing as each of you try to process what you just saw.

You hear Honey Lemon sniffle, before she speaks, “Oh my gosh, (Name)…”

Your heart clenches as sympathy radiates out of all of them. You let out a shaky breath and slowly turn in your computer chair to face them. “Guys, its okay,” you manage to get out. You try to give them a small smile, but it doesn’t reach your eyes.

Fred is the first to grab your hand and pull you out of the chair to give you a hug. The rest of the group comes in and you all wrap your arms around each other. Your eyes tear up, but you don’t cry. You still can’t believe that he was going to ask you to marry him. Of course you would have said yes. There is no doubt in your mind that you would have lived the rest of your life with Tadashi, if you were given the chance.

“We have to find that ring,” Go Go stated after you all pulled back.

Your friends all started to agree, but you began to protest. “No guys, really. It’s okay,” you try to tell them.

“No, (Name). It belongs to you,” the young Hamada boy responds. “You would have said yes, wouldn’t you?”

You smile softly and run a hand through his messy hair. “In a heartbeat.”

“Then it’s yours,” he commands. “And we’re going to find it.” When he gets that determined look on his face, he looks exactly like his older brother.

“Alright,” Honey Lemon claps her hands together to get everyone’s attention. “Wasabi and I will go check Hiro’s lab, Go Go and Fred, check here in (Name)’s lab, (Name) and Hiro should go back to Hiro’s house to check the bedroom. When we finish up here at school, we’ll head over to your house to check everywhere else. This is so exciting!”

“Yeah, it’s like a treasure hunt!” Fred exclaims.

They each start to disperse to go look in their respective areas. Hiro links his arms with yours and pulls you out the door. “Come on. I think I have a few ideas on where he could have hidden it.”

Your heart pounds as your love for this boy grows even more. “Thank you so much, Hiro,” you tell him sincerely.

He grins up at you. “What are little brothers for?”