#*loses*

{ continued from: x }

“That can’t be… I saw you die… I saw-” The words were cut off, unable to get past the lump forming in his throat. The corners of his eyes stung as tears started to form, his breathing quicker and staggered.

Hiro blinked away the moisture in his eyes, a hiccuped breath escaping him as he tried to calm himself. He reached out shakily, his fingers curling into the fabric of Tadashi’s shirt. Tadashi was here? But.. Oh, he was so confused, his memories all muddled in his head.

“H-how…”

Tadashi winces, feeling guilty. This was his fault; he never should have run into that fire. He reaches out to hug his brother hesitantly, hands shaking slightly as they had a tendency to do nowadays. 

“When... when I ran into that fire at the expo, I saw Professor Callaghan with your microbots, and I realized what he was doing-- I... confronted him; this fire was burning and I couldn’t breathe and still I confronted him... and then the explosion happened-- he used the microbots to protect me too, but there weren’t enough to save us both...”

He pauses, sucking in a sigh. “I got hit in the head,” Tadashi says after a moment, reaching up to take off his hat and pointing to a scar a few inches above his left ear--the one shaved spot on the top of his head.

“It was bad; I couldn’t function properly for months. Even now, the doctors say that I’ll never completely regain my hearing in this ear, and I’ll probably never work in a lab without assistance ever again... but I’m grateful, because I’m alive.”

He smiles and puts the hat back on.