Other Worlds Than These

Roll Yourself Into A Tight Ball

Hiro was still high on adrenaline as he walked upstairs to his room, Beck right behind him. It was a good thing he had a small bathroom up here. He assumed putting cold water on burns would help. He had never been great at human anatomy, biology, basically anything that involved living things. If you asked him to point to where his liver was, he'd probably point to his left lung.

The grief was at the back of his mind now, replaced by the need to help. Hiro was a good kid with a good heart, after all. He was still wondering if Beck had been to Good Luck Alley before and Hiro just hadn't noticed. He seemed like the type to be a little familiar with that crowd. Which wasn't an awful thing, considering Hiro himself was rather familiar with the place. Beck coughed, which pulled Hiro out of his thoughts.

"You okay?"

"Maybe?" The teenager replied.

Hiro hoped his lungs weren't messed up, because that was something he definitely couldn't handle. He could really use Tadashi right now, that nerd always knew weird medical things- wait no, don't think about Tadashi. He was really hoping that Tadashi could slip his mind for just a little while. Just for an hour.

But again, the dark corners of his mind chimed in, if you forgot Tadashi, did you even love him? If you don't feel empty and cold, does he even matter to you? What younger brother simply goes on when his older brother dies horrifically? But for now, with the help of the adrenaline, Hiro could push those thoughts aside.

"Uh, Beck, do you know any first aid by any chance? I just know that antiseptic is good."

"I'm good at robots, not humans." Beck said with a tone that was almost apologetic.

Now that was music to Hiro's ears. Hiro had never met another kid near his age that was good at robotics like he was. Immediately he felt something- maybe he should keep Beck around. Even if he probably was a bot-fighter that Hiro had just never fought

"You're good at robotics too?" Hiro asked excitedly.

"Are capacitors super annoying and fragile- yeah I am! Oh, finally, someone who's good at robotics!" Beck replied with a relieved and similarly excited tone.

Hiro was overjoyed to finally meet someone who was into the same things he was. He could almost forget about the fire, if he could just keep talking about this. But every time he looked at Beck's arms, already starting to blister, it reminded him of what happened at SFIT. But still, he had to help somehow. He had gotten this far.

"We gotta build something together soon- anyhow, uh, burns, yeah- maybe put cold water on them?" Hiro said like he wasn't sure if the statement was correct.

How could you build robots, your brother is DEAD, screamed the dark corners of his mind. But Hiro was able to push those thoughts back, for now.

"Seems like a good idea." Beck shrugged and walked into the bathroom.

Hiro heard the sink turn on and a scream of "Ow, fuck, that's hot!" coming from Beck.

"Yeah, the sink's messed up, turn the red knob for cold water!"

Hiro should've told him about that before he put scalding hot water onto his burns, he was stupid why was he even trying-

But, Hiro was shocked when from Tadashi's corner of the room, he heard what sounded like something inflating. He turned to look and saw Baymax. Wait, Tadashi had brought Baymax here? Why? But, believe it or not, he was here, and currently knocking everything off the shelf while trying to get into the main area. Beck must've heard the noise too because he stepped out of the bathroom to see what was going on.