Archive of Our Own ^beta

                Hiro licks his lips and rests his head in the crook of his elbow, watching Tadashi work from across the lab. The taller boy pointedly not looking his way, which irks him to no end, but he knows why his brother is avoiding him.

                Ever since that crazy night when Tadashi got drunk and kissed him. Both Hamada boys were rather out of it, at the time, though definitely not drunk enough to blame their actions on the alcohol. Things got very heated very quickly, and that probably freaked Tadashi out. Hiro smirks at the memory, remembering how red his brother had gotten. Admittedly, maybe licking his older brother's lips in the heat of the moment was taking it a bit too far, but who can resist the temptation?

                They haven't spoken beyond 'good morning' and 'good night' since then, and it's been nearly five days. Hiro is certain he'll go crazy if Tadashi ignored him for any longer, though he definitely won't complain about all the time he got to admire the taller one's lean, muscular physique from a distance. However, Hiro buries his face into his sleeve as he reddens, he definitely wouldn't mind admiring his brother from much, much closer.

                There is a way to get Tadashi's attention, but it might be playing a bit underhandedly. Who cares? Hiro isn't fourteen anymore, he's almost an adult for chrissake! Being underaged by four years never stopped him before, so why would one year stop him now?

                Tadashi can feel the burning gaze Hiro sends him, and as tempting it is to turn around and throw himself into his baby brother's arms like the pathetic (illegal!) older brother that he is, he can't bring himself to go against all the laws and commandments or whatever regulations exist that specifically say it's a very, very bad thing to want to fuck your brother.

                Having grown up with devout Catholics for parents, Tadashi is more than aware of how completely against everything he was raised to believe this is. God can't damn him to hell for loving his little brother, right? As long as they don't partake in any intimate or sexual acts. Or maybe Tadashi already has one foot in the pit for even thinking about his brother in a romantic way.

                It's almost a pity Hiro hadn't grown up with mother and father Hamada, because their teachings would have done a great deal to douse the heat that Tadashi knows fills the seventeen year old's eyes when he watches his older brother. The looks Hiro sends him sets his entire back on fire, and it's all he can do to stop himself from letting his knees give out.

                But Hiro never knew any laws, not since he was old enough to walk, and his record of getting into awfully illegal trouble was more than enough proof of that. Tadashi tries his best to stop himself from turning around when he hears Hiro get up, but when the door to the lab slams shut he can't help but glance at the retreating form of his brother through the misted glass.

                Meanwhile, Hiro's takes advantage of his head start and heads straight for the nearest bot fight. With any luck, the type of people he's looking for will be hanging around the fight. If he can make a quick buck while he's at it, why not? He's grown used to carrying at least a thousand dollars worth of betting money in his pocket for any occasion he can get to go fight.

                He checks his watch, timing himself for a little under an hour, the approximate time it usually takes for Tadashi to figure out where he's gone and track him down, and settles into the back of the crowd. He really misses the atmosphere of the ring, the smell of heated metal and oil among other things, and the buzz of electricity that pounds through his veins. If it weren't for his original goal, Hiro would love to lose himself to the fight.

                The younger Hamada takes his opportunity to step forward and challenge the champion. He hasn't been five feet tall for a couple of years, so his old 'innocent' act doesn't work anymore, but that doesn't matter. Anyone who's a regular at the fights knows who he is, and ruses like that don't throw them off like they used to. He takes a seat on his side of the ring, putting Megabot down in front of him. He looks up, shooting his opponent a shy glance.

                The champion is a rough looking guy, wearing all sorts of leather, hair buzzed into a dark purple mowhawk, a slightly bloodied bandage on his cheek, and ears pierced in every way possible. He can't be much older than twenty five, at most. Hiro eyes the champion's shiny industrial from where he sits, it's a two-tone gold and silver snake with red eyes, maybe glass or maybe rubies. His own industrial piercing is a simple silver bar on his right ear, something he would love to replace with the treasure in his opponent's ear.

                The man across from him notices how Hiro took a shine to his bauble and takes it out, wiping it thoroughly with his sleeve, and drops it into the bet bowl instead of money. Hiro's eyes light up and he drops a few hundred dollar bills into the bowl with a grin. No words are exchanged as the referee drops her parasol between their bots, twirling it slowly.

                "Two bots enter, one bot leaves." she purrs, eying both competitors before bringing the parasol up. "Fight!"

                Hiro wastes no time, throwing Megabot into the fight with as much power as he can afford to show without giving away the secret of his bot. The challenging bot is a sleek black cat who's engine growls deeply, not like the usual high-pitched whine of metal one would usually hear from a fighter bot. A curved scythe tips the robotic cat's tail, which swings toward Megabot with a speed Hiro hadn't anticipated.

                Megabot dances out of the way, narrowly missing being cut clean in half. The metal feline leaps onto the smaller robot, sharp knifelike claws scratching the rounded surface as the machines wrestle. Megabot separates into three segments and rolls around the cat while it tries to figure out which piece to go after first.

                Hiro risks a peek at the man across from him, who he is surprised to find smiling. The scream of metal being torn draws his attention back to the fight. The cat managed to scratch Megabot's middle segment, nearly splitting it open. Hiro mashes a few buttons on his controller, having Megabot stick to the cat's surface and probing it for its weaknesses.

                The other bot bucks and writhes, throwing off two of Megabot's segments easily while the third one rolls around it's chest. Ah, bingo.      

                Hiro wastes no time sending all of Megabot's segments straight for the spot under the cat bot's chest cavity, finding the barely-there spaces between the plates and wrenching them open. The robot splutters to a stop as it's inner parts spill out.       

                "Good fight, kid!" piercings guy laughs, looking at the wreckage of his own robot with an almost wistful expression. "I'm glad I got to fight you. You're not like the rest of these assholes, you have a good bot. And good skills, too!"

                The boy lights up with embarrassment, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly. "Ah- geez, th- thanks! You put up a pretty good fight, too!"

                Hiro collects his winnings, picking up the piece of jewelry and turning it in his fingers delicately, admiring it. it's much more impressive up close, having every scale etched into the metal down to the tips of the fangs peeing out of its mouth.

                "Fourteen karat gold, there, with silver." Hiro looks up at his defeated opponent, who had already picked up the pieces of his robot. "Had it custom made. Those eyes are real rubies, too, you know. You deserved it, kid. Pleasure fighting you!"

                Hiro almost winces as he mentally calculates how much it must be worth. It doesn't even look dirty at all! Clearly, a lot of care and love was given to it. Ah, well, it's his now. He hurriedly takes out his own bar and replaces it with the snake, mentally reminding himself to clean it later, once he's home.

                A few more rounds are fought before Hiro calls it a day and packs up, counting his winnings. There's easily five hundred dollars more in his pocket than what he started out with, and he smirks in satisfaction. He steals a look at his watch and guesses that he has, maybe, five minutes or so before his darling brother gets here.

                He scans the crowd for a familiar face and falls on one of the fighters he beat earlier. He was one of the sore losers, too. Perfect. Hiro smoothly weaves through the spectators until he's close enough, and then elbows the guy as he passes him.

                "What the- hey, you! You're that kid that cheated, earlier, aren't ya? Come back here, I'll show you what a fair fight looks like!" is what Hiro hears behind him as he breaks into a run.

                The sound of pounding footsteps fills the alleys as he leads the loser and, presumably, a few of his friends on a wild goose chase. A look at his watch, two minutes left. There's the sound of an engine revving in his ears, but it might just be his imagination. He leads the gang left and right, down as many alleys as he can find, even taking the time to knock a garbage can down to slow his pursuers.

                Hiro makes another turn, expecting to come out onto the street, but instead comes face to face with a brick wall. Shit, a dead end! He whips around, hearing the botfighters closing in on him. Shit, he fucked up this time. Oh shit, shit, he fucked up a lot, there's still a minute left and there's so much a gang of grown men can do to him in the span of a minute-

                The roar of a bike engine drowns out his thoughts and nearly bowls the oncoming angry men over, skidding to a halt at the entrance of the dead end.

                "Hiro?!" Tadashi's voice echoes down the alley as Hiro vaults onto the back of his brother's moped.

                "Drive, drive, drive!" Hiro gasps into Tadashi's ear, glancing over his shoulder in the direction of the angry fighters getting to their feet and running toward the pair.

                Tadashi hits the gas and rockets out of the alley, speeding down the road as fast as legally possible.

                "What the hell were you thinking?!" Tadashi yells over the engine. "Are you trying to get yourself killed? Cause that's what it looked like, Hiro! It looked like you were trying to get your ass handed to you! I thought you said you were done bot fighting!"

                "Swear jar, first of all. And secondly, I needed a way to get your attention! You haven't spoken to me in five days, Tadashi. Five days!"

                "You could have just asked to talk!"

                "You think I haven't tried that, knucklehead? You wouldn't even look at me!"

                Shit, Hiro had him there. Tadashi shrugs and makes a pathetic whining noise. Remembering the exact reason why he was ignoring Hiro in the first place causes him to nearly swerve into a fire hydrant. After Hiro's undignified shriek, and after calming the wild drumming of his own heart, he replies: "Sorry, then! I was busy, I have midterms to study for and projects to finish, remember? Not everyone can be as amazingly smart as you!"

                Hiro snorts, rolling his eyes. "Conveniently enough, you get super busy the day right after we kiss. I've got to say, big bro, your timing is impeccable."

                "That was a mistake, okay? Look, we were both drunk that night and we weren't thinking clearly!"

                Hiro's heart drops out. This entire time, he's been riding on the assumption that Tadashi wanted it as much as he did, but hearing his brother say out loud that it was a mistake gives him sufficient doubt. Tadashi is an open, loving person, but he is also very strict on rules and laws. Of course he wouldn't want to be in a relationship with his own brother, no matter what kind of fight Hiro puts up.

                Tadashi can feel Hiro wilt against his back, and his heart breaks. He regrets what he said, though at the same time he doesn't. There's no way a relationship between them would work.

                They continue the ride home in silence, Hiro hopping off the back of the moped and making a beeline for the door and, probably, straight to the garage. Tadashi watches him leave as he puts his bike away, wondering if there's anything he could say that can fix this mess.

                The older Hamada runs his fingers through his hair, taking a few moments to simply collect his thoughts and breathe, then follows Hiro to the garage.

                Hiro is blowing through the garage like a hurricane, grabbing tools from one work bench, turning on the computer, booting up the 3D printer, drops the tools onto another bench, takes out Megabot and sits down, immediately working on fixing the scratches and dents in it. He hears Tadashi walk into the garage behind him, but he doesn't think he can muster up the courage to turn around and face him.

                "Hiro?" Tadashi tries, barely above a whisper. "Hiro, please hear me out-"

                The boy slams his tools onto the work bench with more force than necessary. He runs a hand through his hair, taking a deep breath before unloading his emotions in a small bomb. "What do you want, Tadashi? You gonna tell me what we did was a mistake, again? Because I now you don't really regret it. You just don't like admitting that, maybe, you're not the perfect little boy mommy and daddy wanted you to be."

                Tadashi flinches at his words, remaining silent as Hiro rolls his chair to the computer, bringing up the blueprints for Megabot and printing out a new middle segment for it. That was a low blow and Hiro knows it, but at the same time he isn't wrong.

                "What else would you have me do, then?" Tadashi's voice cracks, and Hiro allows himself a glance at his big brother. There are emotions warring in Tadashi's eyes despite the calm, collected façade he managed to school his expression into.

                Hiro contemplates this for a moment, tilting his head to watch Tadashi from every angle. He watches as his older brother's hands curl into fists that tremble slightly at his sides, before getting up from his seat and striding toward Tadashi confidently, or as confidently as he can before he loses the nerve to do what he's about to do.

                Completely sober, Hiro grabs Tadashi by the front of his shirt and pulls him down the few inches he's too tall and roughly plants a kiss on his mouth. There's no heat or passion, it's simply a test.

                Tadashi is shocked into stillness, heartbeat picking up to a dizzying speed. Hiro pulls away after a moment, and Tadashi unconsciously chases his baby brother's lips for a second, chaste kiss. Mortification overcomes him as he realize what kind of situation he just put himself in. He looks down at Hiro's smug grin.

                "There it is." Hiro murmurs, eyes softening when he sees how conflicted Tadashi is. "Come on, 'Dashi. Did that feel wrong to you?"

                Tadashi remains still, knowing that no matter what he says he can't win: on one hand, he would admit to being immoral and God will descend from the sky to kick his ass straight to hell, or he could lie to the baby brother he once swore he would never deceive or lie to. His silence is more than enough answer for Hiro, anyway.

                "I didn't think so." Hiro nods and turns away, going back to his work bench and fixing his robot. Tadashi is left at the entrance to the garage, wondering what the devious glint in Hiro's gaze could possible mean for him.

                Probably trouble.