"Hey, you got that okay, buddy?"
"Hai!" Daniel smiles up at his papa over the top of the box he was carrying. It was almost as big as he was, but he was determined to show his parents what a big boy he was and that he could handle helping them out with the family's weekend project. Tadashi had been wanting to repaint the master bedroom almost since he and Fred had bought the house right before getting married. Somehow or other, though, they'd never managed to get around to it with their busy schedules. But when a convenient long weekend had come up with no other plans getting in the way, Tadashi had finally put his foot down and said that enough was enough: they were finally getting it done. Fred hadn't really minded the old color, but if it made Tadashi happy, he was all for it. They had considered sending their son, Daniel, to go stay with Aunt Cass for the weekend as the endless series of tasks (packing up everything in the room, moving said items and the furniture out of the room, actually painting the room, and putting everything back into place when it was done) was sure to be a bore for the barely five-year-old boy. But, as much as Daniel loved his aunt, he valued the time that he got to spend with his dads even more and so he'd insisted on staying to "help" with the process. Fred and Tadashi didn't really expect him to stick with it for that long-he was only five, after all, and not only had a five-year-old's attention span but would probably tire easily- so they'd already turned on the Saturday morning cartoons in the living room, assuming that he'd gravitate to there when he either became bored or needed a rest. Surprisingly enough, though, he'd stolidly continued to move box after box out into the hallway or into the guest bedroom where things were being staged for the time being, working alongside his dads until they were almost all gone.
"All right, bud, I think that's the last one for you," Tadashi tells Daniel, lovingly ruffling the boy's hair as the tyke puts down his current box at the end of the hallway.
"But there are more boxes in the closet!" Daniel points out, determined to help as much as he could.
"I-Yes there are," Tadashi admits. "But they're… Um, they're a bit heavy, even for a big boy like you, so how about you just leave them to your dad and me, okay?"
Daniel wanted to protest-he wanted to show him that he could do anything his dads could do! Still, he didn't like to disobey, so he just nods and says, "Okay, Papa."
"Thank you." Tadashi lovingly pecks the boy's forehead. "You deserve a rest after all your hard work-why don't you go watch some cartoons until your dad gets back with lunch and then we can all eat together, okay?"
"Okay!" Daniel beams up at him-eating lunch with both his dads was a special treat that he usually only got on the weekends since his papa had to work during the week, and the fact that his daddy was bringing them lunch from his grandma's restaurant made it even better!
He was just about to go into the living room like he'd been told when suddenly he hears his papa's phone ringing. Almost instantly, Papa pulled the phone out of his pocket, answering it, "Hello, Tadashi Hamada speaking." After a moment, he smiles and says, "Oh, hey Hiro!"
Daniel's ears perk up at that-his Uncle Hiro was on the phone! He loved his uncle-he always made the coolest stuff and he played a lot of fun games with him. Even better, he'd been told that his Uncle Hiro and Uncle Ezra were expecting to have a baby soon! He didn't fully understand it all-he knew that Uncle Hiro and Uncle Ezra weren't having a baby like most mommies and daddies did, where the baby grew in their mommy's tummy. He still wasn't clear as to why daddies couldn't have babies like mommies could, but he did know that the baby was going to be born the same way that he had, in a special machine his papa had made. Apparently that made some people mad, although he didn't know why anyone would be. His papa had explained that some people didn't think that two daddies or two mommies should be together, which he thought made absolutely no sense-he had the best dads in the entire world, they loved him and took really good care of him! But Daddy had said not to worry about what the mean people said, and so he'd decided not to. He was mainly just excited that he was going to be having a baby cousin! (Secretly he hoped that it would be a girl-he didn't know why, but he just did, and he couldn't wait to help take care of her and teach her things and play with her when she got old enough. He was going to be the best cousin ever!)
"No, nothing major-we're just moving the boxes out of our room so that we can repaint it," Tadashi continues as he talks to Hiro on the phone, and Daniel hovers near him, hoping that maybe Uncle Hiro would want to talk to him like he did sometimes. But instead of smiling like he usually did, Papa started frowning and he walks off down the hallway, not noticing Daniel and talking in the tone of voice that the little boy knew meant that they were talking about boring work stuff.
Daniel glances over at the TV in the living room. He knew that Papa had told him that he was supposed to watch cartoons while they waited for Daddy to get back, but the show that was playing was one that he didn't really like-something boring that he knew the older kids on the playground liked but that he didn't really care for.
His eyes dart back over to the door to his parents' room. Papa had said that the boxes in the closet were too big for him, but wouldn't he be proud of him if he saw that he had actually moved them all by himself? A nagging feeling in his brain tells him that he might be mad at him for not obeying him, but the more outgoing part of his nature says that Papa would be so impressed with him that he wouldn't really be mad at him, and, that thought firmly in the five-year-old's brain, the little boy scurries back into his parents' room to go move the last of the boxes.
As it turned out, Papa had been right-these boxes were about twice Daniel's size, and he definitely couldn't move them on his own. Still, much like both his dads, Daniel was stubborn when he'd set his mind to doing something and he was determined to do this, even if it seemed impossible. He puts his hands against the nearest one and starts to push. The box didn't budge. Not deterred, he puts his shoulder up against it, pushing it with all of his might. It barely shifts an inch before hitting resistance and sending Daniel bouncing backwards against the wall. He was just going to try again when suddenly he feels something weird behind him on the wall. Curiously, he turns around to see a square-shaped panel on the wall-the same color of the rest of the closet, but oddly separated from it, almost like a very large button. Not even thinking about the consequences, like any other five-year-old would do, he pushes the square to see what would happen.
The first sign he had that he might have been doing the wrong thing was when there was a sudden grinding, almost growling sound, coming from the back wall of the closet. The second sign was when the back wall of the closet started moving, rotating out and then around like a revolving door. The third sign was when he came face to face with a monster.
Daniel lets out a high-pitched scream, diving behind the pile of boxes when he sees the large blue and red kaiju with three big yellow eyes and a mouth full of sharp teeth staring down at him. He huddles close to the ground, hoping that it wouldn't see him or maybe pass him over in hopes of finding a larger meal. But when thirty seconds pass and nothing happens, he dares to peek back over the boxes at the monster. It hadn't moved since he'd last seen it. In fact, the more he looked at it, the more he realized that it wasn't actually a real monster at all, but a costume, like his daddy wore sometimes for parties and conventions. But why would he keep one hidden behind a secret door in his closet? And then Daniel's eyes fall on what was next to the monster costume, and his eyes go wide, his fear of the fake kaiju being overcome by awe as he's drawn almost magnetically towards what his young brain was identifying unmistakably as a superhero suit. A superhero suit! A real one, not like the ones that Papa would wear for Halloween-this one was way too cool to be anything but the genuine thing! Looking back at the kaiju suit, he began to wonder if maybe it was a superhero suit as well. But why would his daddies have these and keep them hidden from him? Unless…
"Daniel?" The little boy jumps guiltily as he hears his papa's voice just outside the closet. He sounded scared for some reason. He turns around to see Papa standing in the doorway, a worried look on his face.
"Daniel, are you okay?" he asks, seeming relieved when he hurries in to scoop the five-year-old up into his arms. "I heard you scream and I thought-"
His eyes travel past his son to the back wall of the closet and his words cut off suddenly, his face going noticeably a few shades paler.
"Daniel, what-?" he starts to asks in a shaky whisper.
That was more than enough to confirm the little boys' suspicions. "P-Papa?" he asks, staring up at his father with something like awe on his tiny face. "A-are you and Daddy superheroes?"
Ten minutes later, Daniel found himself sitting on the couch in the living room, his legs dangling over the edge, his feet still resting several inches above the floor. He had a squirmy, guilty feeling in his stomach as he watches his papa pacing across the room from him. Papa hadn't yelled at him, but he was still afraid that he was angry with him, because all he'd said before pulling Daniel out of the closet was, "We'll talk about this when your father gets home", and he'd been completely silent since. Part of Daniel was scared because he didn't like making his parents upset, but another part of him was bubbling over with questions. Were his dads actually superheroes? If so, how long had they been superheroes? Did they have any actual superpowers? And why hadn't they told him before? Didn't they trust him? Still, he manages to keep these questions to himself, not wanting to risk getting himself into even more trouble.
Finally Daniel hears the front door open, and it's all he can do not to run over to hug his Daddy in hopes that he could get him to make Papa stop being mad at him. But one look at Papa told Daniel that he should stay put if he didn't want to risk even more punishment, and so he stays firmly seated on the couch, not daring to even make a peep.
"Hey guys!" Fred says, coming into the room, holding the bags containing lunch aloft. "Who's hungry?" Seeing the expressions on both his husband's and son's faces, he lowers the bags and says slowly, "Okay… Maybe the better questions is who died?"
"Someone died?" Daniel squeaks,looking horrified.
"No, sweetie, it's just an expression," Tadashi hurries to reassure him, his expression momentarily softening before turning back to his husband and say flatly, "He found the suits."
"H-he what?" Fred looks momentarily caught off guard by the statement, and then suddenly a slight smile starts twitching at the edges of his mouth. "Huh. I wondered how long it would take for him to do that."
"Fred!" Tadahsi's words come out as a reprimand. "This isn't something to joke about! This is serious!"
"Okay, yes, it is serious," Fred agrees, putting the bags down on the coffee table. "But it's not the end of the world either. You need to calm down, sweetheart, I think you're scaring him."
"Your suit already took care of that, darling," Tadashi huffs, crossing his arms over his chest and looking seriously ticked off that his husband wasn't taking this more seriously.
Fred crouches down in front of Daniel so that he was eye level with him. "I'm sorry, bud, did the kaiju scare you?" he asks, reaching out to playfully ruffle the little boy's hair before blowing a playful raspberry on his stomach.
"N-no!" Daniel squeals, giggling at the tickling sensation. "Well, maybe at first," the little boy admits. "But then it didn't!"
"Well good, because it's nothing to be scared of-he's a good guy," Fred reassures his son.
Daniel nods before looking up at him and asking in a hushed voice, "A-are you and Papa actually superheroes?"
Fred looks over at Tadashi, who frowns before finally sighing and giving him an "if you must" look. That was all the approval the fanboy needed.
"Yep!" he agrees, scooping his son up into his arms and playfully swinging him around. "Your dad and I are both superheroes! Well, mostly retired superheroes, but we go out on a mission or two every once in awhile when we're needed!"
"Wow…" Daniel stares up at him in complete and utter awe before starting to fire off a whole string of questions. "How long have you guys been superheroes? Do you have superpowers? Do you fight off the bad guys? Can I help you guys?"
"All right, one question at a time," Fred chuckles. "All right-we've been superheroes for a really long time now, from way before you were even born. We don't have actual superpowers, but your Uncle Hiro built us suits so that I can shoot fire out of my suit and jump really high, and your papa can fly and he has these really cool laser katana."
"Whoa…" Daniel looks between Fred and Tadashi, who was blushing slightly at the way his son was staring at him like he was a character who had just stepped off the pages of a comic book, before suddenly frowning and asking in an accusatory tone, "Why didn't you guys tell me that you were superheroes?"
"Because we didn't want you being scared, buddy," Tadashi answers, finally coming over to where his family was and taking Daniel from Fred, cradling him close to his chest. "You asked if we fight the 'bad guys', and the truth is that we do. And some of them are really mean and really scary. And me and your dad can take them on no problem, but we didn't want you thinking-we didn't want you to be worried that something bad might happen to us and that we might not come home or something."
"Oh…" Daniel hadn't even considered that. He hadn't thought about the fact that maybe the villains could hurt his parents. But no, his daddies were the good guys, and the good guys always won!
"I'm not scared!" he says firmly, nuzzling into his papa's chest. "I know you guys are really strong and no one could ever hurt you!"
"You've got that right!" Fred agrees, grinning down at his son.
"So… You're not upset about us being superheroes?" Tadashi asks, looking slightly relieved.
"Mm-mm!" Daniel shakes his head. "I think it's really cool!"
"See?" Fred smile over at Tadashi. "I told you that there was nothing to be worried about!"
"I guess you were right," Tadashi agrees, smiling tentatively back at him.
"So do you guys fight crime every night?" Daniel asks eagerly. "Or is that where Papa goes every day when he has 'work'?"
"No, sweetheart, I actually do have a job," Tadashi answers with an amused smile. "And like I said, we're mostly retired."
"Re…tired?" Daniel asks, the word unfamiliar to him.
"It means we aren't really superheroes anymore and we only go out and fight the bad guys if no one else can do it or someone needs extra help," Tadashi explains.
"Oh…" Daniel looks slightly disappointed by this, but after a minute he says, "Well… It's still pretty cool!"
"You bet it is!" Fred agrees with a laugh.
"Can I see you guys dressed up as superheroes?" Daniel asks eagerly. "Please?"
"Well, I don't know…" Tadashi says uncertainly. "Technically we need to get eating lunch and then get back to work…"
"Please?" Daniel begs, giving him his best puppydog eyes.
"Yeah, please?" Fred adds, obviously not wanting to miss the chance to show off for his son.
"All right, fine, we'll do it!" Tadashi sighs in defeat-he didn't stand a chance against both of them.
"Yay!" Daniel cheers eagerly.
"Thank you, sweetheart," Fred adds, lovingly pecking his husband on the cheek.
"Gross!" Daniel cries, pretending to gag.
"If you're going to act like that, maybe I'll change my mind about letting you see the suits," Tadashi tells him playfully.
"No, no, I'll be good!" Daniel cries. "I promise!"
"You'd better make good on that," Tadashi replies with a warm smile.
About half an hour later, Tadashi found himself stepping into the living room completely dressed in his superhero gear that had honestly fallen mostly to disuse over the past few years. When he'd finally settled down, he'd decided to leave the heroics to the younger superheroes who were rising up to take Big Hero 8's place, not wanting to risk putting his family or himself (whom his family was depending on) in danger. Part of him had even considered getting rid of the old suit, but Fred had managed to convince him not to, reminding him that, on occasion, the younger supers did still need their elders' advice and assistance. Now, seeing the awe-struck expression on his son's face, he was definitely glad that he'd held onto it.
Daniel insisted on a full demonstration of both of his dads' "powers", something that was a little difficult for Fred to do in the house without causing major amounts of destruction, but after a lot of pleading from them both Tadashi had allowed Fred to give perfom toned-down versions of his usual battle moves in the garage where there weren't as many things to light on fire or accidentally crush. Their son was obviously a big fan of the "kaiju" now that he'd gotten over his initial fear, but he seemed most entranced by his papa's laser katanas. He'd begged over and over again to be allowed to try them, but Tadashi had held his ground, telling them that he could try them with lots of supervision on his thirteenth birthday-maybe.
"You know it's inevitable, right?" Fred says later that afternoon after the suits had once again been safely stored away and the family was finally eating their lunch-or, the two men were eating lunch whereas Daniel, despite Tadashi's best efforts to get him to "settle down", was racing around the living room, pretending to be a superhero and fighting off imaginary villains.
"Mm?" Tadashi asks, tearing his eyes away from his adorable little boy and looking over at his husband.
"Him becoming a superhero," Fred answers with a slight smile. "I kind of figured that with my dad and now us it's in his blood and he'd end up becoming one whether or not he ever found out about us. But now that he knows-you know that it's not going to be long before he's out there in his own suit, saving the day, right?"
"He's only five years old!" Tadashi protests, eyes going wide with horror.
"I don't mean he's going to be out there tomorrow!" Fred hurries to reassure him. "But I mean eventually, and I think that it's better that we come to terms with that now so that we can start preparing him."
"Fred…" Tadashi looks slightly troubled by this. "Look, it was one thing when we were doing it, but I'm not sure that that's the life that I want for our son."
"If it were up to me, I wouldn't want to put him in the way of danger either," Fred answers, rubbing the other man's knee soothingly. "But think about how you-no, better yet, think about how Hiro was when he was a teenager. Daniel takes after his uncle, and do you remember what happened every time you told Hiro that he couldn't go bot fighting or that you thought that a mission was 'too dangerous' for him?"
"He went anyways?" Tadashi answers tiredly, as if reliving all the stress that his younger sibling had put him through.
"Exactly," Fred agrees. "I know that Daniel loves us both and he'll want to obey us, but if he thinks it's his calling to become a hero, he's going to follow it the way we've always taught him to do what he thinks is right, no matter what the cost. And I think it would be better if he had his dads there to support him and make sure that he's as safe as possible while doing it than to be doing it behind our backs and possibly getting himself into a situation that could have been prevented if we had prepared him."
"...Why do you always have to be right about these things?" Tadashi sighs, shaking his head slightly.
"It's a gift," Fred chuckles, leaning over to kiss his husband on the cheek. "So, is that a 'yes' that we're going to help him?"
"Yes, it's a 'yes'," Tadashi agrees him. "I'm not letting our son go all Spiderman vigilante, feeling like he's all alone instead of having all of our love and support when he needs it the most."
"Excellent!" Fred grins over at him. "See? I knew I could count on you!" He wraps his arm around Tadashi's shoulders. "We're going to do a great job of training our boy so that he can become the best superhero ever!"
"Yeah." Tadashi can't help but smile as he watches Daniel, imagining his son someday all grown up and wearing his own suit. "Our little superhero."