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"Yeah, I'm okay," says the short brunette, trying unsuccessfully to catch her breath, "but Professor Callaghan is still in there!"
She rushes off in a state of panic, and the Hamada brothers' attention turns to the burning SFIT building in front of them.
And in an instant, Hiro knows what his idiotic nerd of a big brother is about to do. He knows from the do-or-die look on Tadashi's face, from the beads of sweat appearing on his forehead, from the way his fists clench against his sides. He knows from the fourteen years of living in the same house as someone too darn selfless for his own good.
Oh, no...he's gonna go in there, isn't he?
Sure enough, Tadashi charges towards the flames.
"Tadashi, no!" Hiro shouts, grabbing the older Hamada by the arm and pulling him to a stop mere inches away from the building. Scrambled within thoughts such as stupid noble idiot, he's going to get himself killed is a blind terror beyond anything he's ever known. The thought of Tadashi going in there—dying in there—and leaving Hiro alone...no. He can't. He won't. I won't let him.
Tadashi turns to his brother, traces of fear lurking behind the determination in his eyes. "Callaghan's in there." His voice, though brave, shakes ever so slightly. "Someone has to help."
In another world, he pulls away.
In another world, he runs inside.
In another world, he is already doomed.
In this world, he tries to pull away, but Hiro's fingernails sink deeper into his skin. "Don't." The word comes out as a plea and an order rolled into one. "The fire department'll be here soon, maybe—"
"Hiro, let go," Tadashi protests, but Hiro can tell he's weakening.
His heart racing a mile a minute. the preteen digs his heels into the pavement and tightens his grip on his brother. "Just don't be a hero, Dashi, okay?" His voice trembles violently; he's choking back his tears. "Don't be a hero." He can't lose Tadashi to the flames tonight. He just can't.
And then, twenty-seven seconds after "someone has to help," Tadashi Hamada wrenches his arm from Hiro's grasp and takes a tentative step towards the building.
(Hiro looks on, eyes wide with fear, praying a blue streak under his breath.)
He is too late. Twenty-seven seconds too late.
The building erupts in red and orange heat, sealing off the door for good. Tadashi's hat flies off his head as both boys are thrown backwards onto the street, landing inches away from each other. Hiro swears loudly as he hits the ground, causing an instinctive shout of "Language!" from Tadashi.
And then, as first Hiro then Tadashi pick themselves up and watch what's left of the building burn, it hits Hiro like a brick in the face just how close his brother came to death.
Twenty-seven seconds.
"Oh, God," Tadashi whispers, his horrified eyes fixed on the fire. "Callaghan..."
But as great a guy as the professor was, Hiro has next to no room in his heart to be upset about his death. All that he can think about is Tadashi, Tadashi could've died, he almost went in there, what if he'd gone in there?...
Three seconds later, he breaks into sobs and throws himself against his brother's chest, his tears dripping onto the jacket Aunt Cass got Tadashi for his nineteenth Christmas. Tadashi, of course, returns the embrace, muttering "it's okay" over and over while gently rubbing his back with the same comforting circular motions that once worked on Hiro when he was a baby. Gradually, Hiro's sobs die down to whimpers, and the two of them just hold each other as the building crumbles to ash in the background.
Another forty-two seconds pass before Hiro pulls away and elbows Tadashi in the ribs. "Don't you ever do that again!"
"Hiro—"
"I don't want to hear it, you moron!" he screams, waving his arms around as he continues his rant. "What if you'd gone galloping in there, huh? You could've died!"
"I—
"You and your stupid selfless instincts! Are you trying to get yourself killed?"
"I know, I know, I was stupid, I should've though it through, but a man's life was in danger—"
"Damn right a life was in danger."
"Language!"
"I'm serious!" Hiro's voice softens as he rubs an extra tear out of his eye. "You could've died, Tadashi, and then where would I be?"
It's around this point that the rest of the Nerd Lab returns to the scene, all four of them stopping mid-sprint upon spotting Tadashi and Hiro. Wasabi's eyes widen with horror when he sees the damage done to the building, whereas Fred whistles loudly and is immediately silenced by a punch in the chest from Gogo.
"We could hear the explosion from the parking lot," says Honey Lemon between breaths. "Are you guys all right?"
"Oh, y'know, the usual," Hiro remarks sarcastically. "First a fire broke out on the most important night of my life, then I had to stop Superman over here from committing suicide—"
Tadashi stops his brother cold mid-sentence with a single, slightly bitter sentence of his own. "Professor Callaghan was in there."
Honey gasps. The smile fades from Fred's face. Even the normally inscrutable Gogo Tomago looks shaken.
Wasabi is the first to speak, asking a question none of them wants to know the answer to. "Is...is he..."
"I don't know," says Tadashi quietly, his head in his hands. "But..."
Hiro does not want to talk about Callaghan. The last thing he needs right now is Tadashi beating himself up over the fact that he didn't sacrifice his life for his professor. He wants to go back to the Lucky Cat Cafe with his brother and his brother's cool friends and forget this whole nightmare ever happened.
So he does the only thing he can think of to do. He picks up Tadashi's hat and hands it to him. "You dropped this." He plasters a smirk on his face. "Nerd."
Tadashi shrugs and takes the hat.
The rest of the night zooms by in a blur, with the occasional image standing out in Hiro's memory—Aunt Cass arriving and nearly squeezing both her boys to death while sobbing "oh, thank God" over and over, the impromptu vigil for Callaghan at the Lucky Cat, Gogo administering clumsy comfort to a nearly hysterical Wasabi, the slightly overdone dim sum that somehow tastes just the tiniest bit better than it ought to taste, and Mochi nearly causing a riot by jumping onto the stove. (Fred suggests they turn the cat into a fire-breathing jaguar, but he is immediately vetoed by everyone else in the cafe.)
But the most vivid memory, the one Hiro Hamada will cling to forever, is of Tadashi, tapping him on the shoulder in the middle of all the Mochi-induced chaos before enveloping him into yet another hug and murmuring "thanks" into his hair.
"What are brothers for?" Hiro can't help but reply.
In another world, he's all alone, sobbing into his pillow.
In another world, there are two casualties that night, instead of only one.
Tadashi lets go of his brother, a probably-professor-induced tear still lingering in his eye. "By the way, I'm sorry about your microbots."
Hiro brushes his creation off with a "Oh, those dumb things? You do know I can always build more, right?" He snorts out a laugh, then turns serious. "But don't you go anywhere."
For the first time since the fire broke out, Tadashi smiles. "Don't worry."
One second can separate first place from second.
Ten seconds can mean the difference between a drive and a car crash.
Twenty-seven seconds saved Tadashi Hamada's life.