beyondthedoor | closed; we are all living til we grow older

[two years. it's been two years since hiro left the drift fleet.

[of course, he hadn't been able to explain the little changes in his maturity and personality overall when he'd woken up back in his 14-year-old body at home; mentally, he's reached eighteen now, and he still can't tell his team about it. but he's adjusted now. he's finally starting to grow and fill out, he's learned hand-to-hand combat himself, baymax has gone through a couple of upgrades (so has he), and san fransokyo has been safe.

[safe, like tadashi is back with ino. safe, like the fleet should be after all their hard work.

[but the guilt, the longing over what he's left behind, has never released hiro. no matter how grateful he is to have his friends, or how happy he is to have aunt cass and baymax, he can't forget his crew, his friends in the fleet, his family there... and worst of all, he can't forget belthazar.

[but like every other night, duty calls, and he has to put his at-this-point-nostalgic emotions behind. his scanners have picked up a strange electromagnetic disruption near the docks; his past sounds alarms in his head, but he pushes past that. he sends a text out to the team to tell them, and reassures them that he'll put in the call if it turns out to be anything. then he's on his way.]

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[It's been two years for Hiro, but for Belthazar, it hasn't felt like much time at all. Time is subjective in space. His hair has grown and is in need of a haircut (as always), but nothing else has changed. He still looks fifteen, and he's not sure if that's because people don't age in the Fleet or because of his own malnutrition. He probably won't ever know the truth.

Just as the Fleet always finds a way to make things worse, so does Azeroth, and in some awful culmination of wishes and magic and timelines, he ends up tumbling into a world that is neither. He lands face first and feels his entire body tingling. Oh, Light. Maybe he hurt his spine. Very slowly, he wiggles every part of his body to make sure he still can. He starts with his fingers, then his wrists, all the way to his shoulders. And then he does it with his legs.

He still feels wrong, dead, and as he sits up he realizes it's because he's in a world without mana. This world feels familiar, too. It looks like shit, but it's familiar in the way a child recognizes a primordial fear in his nightmares.]

Exsilium.

[He thought this world was dead. Well, not dead, but completely fucked. Snow everywhere. Yet there is the sound of waves lapping up against the piers, and it doesn't feel like it could be less than fifty degrees outside.

He gets to his feet unsteadily. He never sees the metal bar above him.

Time for a nap.]

[when hiro arrives with baymax, it doesn't take long to find him. he's at the epicenter of the event, and baymax's scanner picks up an injured life form. they hunt it down, and when hiro stumbles upon whoever it is...

[well, his heart damn near stops.

[for several seconds, all he can do is stare. then baymax's voice cuts through the trains of thought.]

"Hiro? Your heart rate has elevated, and there has been a shift in your neuro-transmitter levels. What is the matter?"

[hiro shakes his head.]

Forget me, Baymax. Let's get him home, we have to take care of him.

"Perhaps we should escort him to a nearby hospital. The staff there would--"

No. He's not human, Baymax, we have to take him home.

[after a moment's processing, baymax watches hiro reach down to gather belthazar in his arms and pick him up. he carefully deposits him (he looks almost no different at all) into baymax's arms, and he takes several seconds to examine his face, run fingers through his bangs, be sure it's him.

[but they can't afford to stay. he has to get them to his room. it's luckily late enough that he can sneak belthazar in there, and into tadashi's old bed. he keeps the area mostly as storage, now; having come to terms with tadashi, he's had no problem using the space. but he did keep the screen there, to cover it and keep it looking clean. he uses that to cover what he's doing now, having baymax keep an eye on vitals and administer rudimentary medical attention. it's just a hit to the head; a minor concussion at best. but it's belthazar.

[he has to make sure.]

[Belthazar is only faintly aware of warm arms and then squeakier ones. There is no rhyme or reason to the passage of time, it simply is. He has strange dreams about pink ponies and a man with red hair, and there's a boy with messy hair like his own and tanned skin and he can almost... almost remember the name--

He awakens with a gasp. He registers that he's in a strange place and immediately tries to find his footing, but he ends up tangled in the sheets. He claws at everything in reach, wild and screaming and inconsolable, until his fingers find a lamp and knock that over. He stares at it incomprehensibly, as if the way it breaks apart doesn't make sense to him.

Lamp???

He's still not completely awake.]

[the yelling and lamp breaking gets hiro away from the kitchen, where he'd momentarily left to, and hauling ass back to his room and behind the screen.]

Belthazar?! [the first thing he thinks is that belthazar has cut his hand. he's going to stumble forward to take that hand to check, bold and unafraid.]

[Suddenly there's a stranger bursting into the room and grabbing his arm, and Belthazar's halfway through the incantation for a fire tornado before he realizes what's going on. He drops the spell harmlessly, lets it fizzle out, and simply stares. That is... Hiro. And he is older, the way he should be, a little broader in the shoulders but otherwise still the same kid that he loved.]

Hi-- Hiro?

[He's ashamed at how his voice cracks. None of this makes sense. He had awoken in Exsilium, or so he thought, and now Hiro is here? What? Hiro had never been to that awful island.]

Is it really you? I thought... I thought...

[He can't even finish. Big fat tears well up in his luminescent green eyes, and he's forced to duck his head to hide them.]

--hey. [hiro knows those tears, and he didn't think anything had such a big influence on him anymore as to be able to grip his ribcage and squeeze like this. he reaches forward to cup belth's cheeks in his hands and guide his face back up.

[all there is in his eyes in concern and bewilderment. the longer he holds belthazar's gaze, the more something else seeps in, though, and after just a few seconds, he can't hold back anymore. without thinking about the consequences, he tilts his head, leans in, and kisses him.]

[He can barely make out Hiro's face, he's so overcome; the tears roll down his cheeks, moistening Hiro's fingers. The rest find their way into his black robes and disappear. He's happy, really, but quite shocked, and that's why he takes a moment to register what is going on.

Hiro is kissing him.

It isn't their first kiss, but it's the first one he's had in a long time. He squeaks in surprise, and then his eyes slide closed. Tears sit on the edges of his eyelashes, but he ignores them in favor of kissing back. This is real, this is the test. This is Hiro-- the same Hiro he knew. Hiro, who held him while the world turned mad around them. Hiro, who patiently taught him all he wanted to know about technology and more. Hiro, who held his hand without asking, who drove him crazy on the best of days, who stood by his side as a steadfast and stubborn friend.

He presses into the kiss more, forgetting his pounding head. It pales in comparison to the nerves firing all over his skin, Hiro's familiar smell (all around him, he realizes), their identically-racing heartbeats. He wraps his arms around Hiro and clings like he did the first time they'd hugged, an embrace that's more nails and desperation than anything else.

And then he tugs. Granted, he doesn't weigh very much, but he's definitely leaning back and trying to pull Hiro on top of him. The only thing better than a hug is an all-encompassing hug. He wants to melt into Hiro's skin, burrow in the warmest chambers of his pure heart, and never come out.]

[the kiss breaks when hiro gives in to fall with him, adjusting so that he's laying half on top of him, arms wrapping around him and pulling him against him so that he can wrap all the way around him.

[the sensation he got when they first bonded comes to the front of his mind. belthazar is capable, and strong, and smart, and vulnerable, all at once, and hiro feels better supporting him. he slips back into the role of a security blanket without a moment of resistance or hesitation.

[when he speaks again, it's with his face in belthazar's hair.] I missed you so much...

[Belth is glad that Hiro's face is in his hair so he can't see the horrible ugly face he's making. He's definitely crying full tilt now, tears cascading down his face like the Perseids in the summer, hiccuping and sniffling like he's half his actual age.]

You were gone, you were gone and I--

[His throat tightens into a squeak and he can't do anything after that. He just clings and bawls against his friend's shoulder. It isn't very romantic at all, but who cares? He just needs the warmth right now. He needs for this dream to sink in.]

closed; we are all living til we grow older

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