The tension in the Hamada household was high with all the fighting between the brothers. Hiro stayed silent while Aunt Cass talked about Tadashi's numerous appointments. She needed Hiro's help preparing Tadashi for them all since she'd be working a lot. Hiro silently ate his cereal and mulled over every possible excuse he could think of that would make sure he didn't have to take care of Tadashi. As far as Hiro was concerned, if Tadashi felt well enough to judge Hiro's life and put in his five cents about everything, Tadashi should be able to take care of himself.

"Hiro, can you do that for me?"

"Huh?"

"Can you help Tadashi with his exercises before his appointment with the physical therapist on Wednesday?" Hiro grunted affirmatively and got up to put his half-empty bowl in the sink, his appetite lost. Aunt Cass' head was down, scanning over the large stack of papers that was at her side for another one of Tadashi's appointments, reading each one carefully and highlighting them to make sure she didn't miss a single important detail.

Hiro beelined for the steps that connected up to his room then spun around his office chair while thinking. Last night's "chat" with Tadashi was at the forefront of his train of thought, and every possible thing he could have said in retaliation was just now beginning to appear. How dare Tadashi assume that he had all the facts when the only evidence that he had was that Hiro was out and the street names! Hiro wasn't technically doing anything illegal by watching bot fighting, it was only illegal to take part. Hiro didn't take part, and that was one fact that Tadashi had conveniently forgotten to ask about. Hiro's brother had no idea how hard it is to break away completely from something that made Hiro feel like a real winner. The dough was motivation enough and then add in cheers that fueled the passion to take another fight again and again. "How could he accuse me of lying?" Hiro huffed angrily and threw a pillow against the wall, causing a few action figures to topple over and onto the floor with a firm thud, "He knows absolutely nothing!" He chucked another large pillow at the wall this time even harder, causing a framed photo to fall over. The photo captured him and Tadashi celebrating his win at the exhibition. The last photo taken of them together before the world turned upside down.

That night had been filled with high hopes and expectations of how it would improve Hiro's future. However, not an hour later everything was dashed to pieces and the whole world disintegrated in front of Hiro. Finally after a lot of hard work, Hiro had managed to reconstruct some version of his previous world that seemed steady and water tight. After these recent confrontations with Tadashi, leaks were springing and it scared Hiro.

He walked over and picked up the picture frame to make sure the glass wasn't broken. He took a minute and stared at the two smiling faces that had been so proud of themselves. So proud that Hiro had a fantastic showing and was accepted into the Institute of Technology. Hiro gazed at the picture ruefully and wished that the night hadn't happened. How long would he feel the regret? How long would he feel responsible for taking Tadashi even remotely close to that cursed place? He set the picture frame back on the shelf and laid across his bed, dreaming about a different universe where his parents were alive and Tadashi was whole again. A universe where Hiro was finally unconditionally happy.

Tadashi was watching some TV when two people showed up at the door, "Hey, Tadashi." Carter smiled. Tadashi looked over and waved before asking, "Who is your friend, Carter?" Carter went down the steps with his younger sister following, "This is my sister, Joan. Joan, this is Tadashi Hamada." Joan sent her brother a 'I know that' look. She stayed quiet and sat in the chair that Carter had pulled out for her. Tadashi smiled kindly and took a brief minute to call Hiro on the phone, "Hiro?"

"What?" Hiro asked glumly.

"I want you downstairs. There are some people for you to meet."

"What if I don't want to?"
"I don't care. Just come down here." Tadashi said abruptly, trying not to let on the frustration Hiro often brought on his nerves. Hiro sighed irritatedly, ended the phone call, and pulled himself from bed. He made his way down to the garage area as slowly as humanly possible. So what if Tadashi got annoyed? Apparently that's how he viewed everything Hiro did. When Hiro opened the door he saw Tadashi's visitors. The first was a young man that Hiro recognized as Tadashi's former hospital roommate. The other was a young girl that he could have sworn that he had seen before. Tadashi did the introductions, "This is Carter, my roommate at the hospital and his younger sister Joan. This is Hiro, my brother."

"Carter smiled brightly and waved, "I've been looking forward to meeting you, Hiro." Hiro's smile was convincing although fake, in truth he didn't really feel like smiling at anyone. In the awkward silence that followed a noise of a candy bag being opened by Joan drew his focus. Only one candy had that smell. Gummy Bears.

"You-you um like gummy bears?" He asked brokenly. Smooth Hiro, real smooth.

She nodded, "My favorite candy."

"Mine too. I have a secret stash."

"Wait," Tadashi broke in, "You have a special stash and never told me?"

"Duh, Dashi. That's how special secret stashes work." Hiro rolled his eyes and smiled a tiny smile at Joan, "You can follow me if you want as long as you promise not to tell." Joan looked at her brother for his permission and with a subtle nod from him, she followed Hiro.

The pair went upstairs to his room. He tried to apologize for the untidiness of the whole area by pushing some of the unfolded clothes, crumpled up paper balls, and even an old bottle of energy drink under his bed. He found the stash at the very back of their closet and pulled out a shallow bin full of bags of gummy bears. There were classically flavored ones, smurf shaped ones, sour ones, and all the possible varieties he could find. Besides robots, gummies were his next obsession. He pulled out two bags and tossed one over to Joan. "Thanks." She smiled and caught it. Hiro and Joan ate their candy in almost complete silence, the only sound being the ruffle and crinkle of the small plastic bags. "So..." Hiro said quietly, "How old are you?"

"Fourteen. You?"

"Me too. What school do you go to?"

"North High School. You?"

"I graduated last year from East High School. Right now I'm in the Institute of Technology." Joan's eyes got wide and her mouth curled in excitement, "Really? At 14? Oh I wish I could go there. That's why Carter and I came. Tadashi said he'd help me set my portfolio up and help me understand the college admission process to get me in there."

Her burst of animated conversation took Hiro back a little, "Yeah, I, uh, got in during that yearly exhibition. Now...the hall is closed for renovations but I showcased my microbots."

"I thought I knew your face from somewhere. Hiro Hamada, microbot genius," She made a gesture as if showing the title on a marquee, "I read about you and saw the pictures from that exhibition. I was dying to go but I couldn't."

"Why not?" Hiro asked, popping a few more gummy bears into his mouth.

Joan shrugged and stared at the handful of gummy bears she had poured out, "Carter was working and my parents couldn't go, so I had to stay home. I wish I had gone, well, excluding the fire part."

"Yeah. What are you interested in?"

"Biotechnology. I'd love to be on the inventing end of saving our planet." Joan leaned back in the chair, "What are you studying?"

"Robotics. Tadashi and I both study it. As you can see," Hiro pointed towards his messy desk which was currently covered in random junk, "I have a work space. Both here and downstairs with Tadashi."

As the two talked about robotics and school and other topics that 14 year olds found fascinating, Hiro could finally place who she was and where he had seen her. Joan Stimson was the girl on the bus that one afternoon with the headphones that had sat beside him. Hiro felt a small smile grow on his face as he finally seemed to have an acquaintance who was equal to him in intelligence and in age. His other friends were technically Tadashi's friends. Hiro hadn't ever had friends of his own but dare he say that Joan seemed to actually understand him. More importantly, she liked gummy bears.