(Author's note: I've been pretty busy the past week or two so I haven't been able to update the story. Sorry about that. Working on both Hiro and Tadashi casual cosplays so maybe that's my sorry excuse. I'll also be on holiday for about 2 weeks but will try to write in the plane or when I have free time and hopefully get one to two chapters up and running. Update: WOAH i've really dragged this for a whole week i'm sorry)
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"Childhood is the one story that stands by itself in every soul."- Ivan Doig, The Whistling Season
When Cass heard the scream from the other end of the phone that unforgettable day, she assumed her sister had broke a nail again.
Who would have known she was pregnant.
Of course, a whole scream fest was initiated, earning jolts of shock and dirty looks from the customers patronizing the peaceful serenity of the Lucky Cat Cafe, but Cass was too overjoyed to notice. Nine months later and boom out comes the little bundle of joy. A few months before the arrival of baby Hamada the first, Cass and her sister attended gatherings, met up with old friends, many of whom had kids of their own, and years of experiencing told them everything in the house had to be baby-proofed.
"I'm telling you, David there is the pint-sized incarnation of the devil itself."
"I feed him pureed mashed fruits but he goes around his days as if he had consumes heaps and heaps of gummy bears and drank red bull instead of formula."
This led to many petrifying thoughts on how the Hamada bugger would grow up to become a godzilla-like tyrant, and Mrs Hamada was quick to pay a visit to every child department store she knew within a wide radius to find all kinds of baby-proof products known to mankind. Cupboard locks, foam table edge protectors, heck, even steel plated safety bars for the cot. You name it, she had it all. So everyone was fully prepared to welcome a screaming, kicking, blue-in-the-face and horribly out-of-control baby into the Hamada family.
No one expected a patient, obedient, angelic wide-eyed infant who just laid there staring at everyone in wide-eye wonder whilst trying to grab their pinkies with his tiny hands.
Tadashi Hamada was brought home a few days later, and his parents left him alone, assuming that the unusually quiet behaviour was just a passing stage of shock which would wear off sooner or later.
Two weeks in and Tadashi not only kept up the "act", but even started the attempt to crawl. Cass was pretty sure they had swapped babies at the hospital. Gradually, his parents began to accept (with joy, undoubtedly), that god had blessed them with an angel or whatever, which also made things much, much easier for them. (However, it did mean a hundred and fifty bucks wasted on all that baby proofing equipment.)
Whenever Cass came to visit on weekends, she watched as her older sister experimented with bowl after bowl of pureed spinach, organic cereals and other wonky concoctions to spoon into her infant's mouth. The television was never on, except when Sesame Street came on every day at 7 and Tadashi would blurt out the ABCs with Elmo or count numbers breezily. Numerous activity books were worked through with indefinite ease and by the age of three, all of his duplos were replaced with actual lego bricks due to his astounding ability to create literal colour blocked spaceships, five tower castles with moats and various masterpieces. Whatever the cause, her nephew was always eager to show her what he was capable of. Whether it was sheer luck, or the organic mush worked miracles (Cass wasn't sure which), Tadashi was a smart little rug rat and got to start school a year early.
Seven years later, wee little Hiro came along and that was when hell began for Tadashi and his parents. At first they assumed that he was fearful, that he was just unfamiliar with his new surroundings. That he would sooner or later become the angel Tadashi had morphed into.
Oh how wrong were they.
Hiro wasn't Tadashi. He wasn't interested in picture flash cards or the two times tables. He liked to pretend play as a destructive monster rampaging the city, stepping and kicking on Tadashi's extravagant Lego models, occasionally bawling if the legos joined forces against his foot. (Have you ever stepped on a lego jesus.). He squished nine tubs of different play doh colours together in an attempt to create a "pretty rainbow", but it just resulted in an unattractive grey-brown blob. He didn't laugh along with Ernie and Bert on TV, instead, he just stared blankly at the screen, and then back at his mom as if to say " Are you seriously gonna let me sit through this sickening kiddy induced horror for one whole hour?" and always woke up in the middle of the night to climb over the grills of his cot (Cass's sister really wished she hadn't managed to successfully sell off all fifty two of the baby-proofing products on ebay) , trying to tug on his parent's sleeve to signal that he had wet the bed yet again. (He always giggled at their sleepy exasperated faces and found it as a source of entertainment.)
By the time he was 2 months old, Hiro managed to obtain control of the remote and would change the channel from whatever educational program Tadashi was watching to some senseless action cartoon much to his older brother's annoyance, who always attempted to chase Hiro, wrestle him to the ground and try to navigate Animal Planet for the seventeenth time (he was really fascinated by the meerkats and the African jungle or something), admist screams of "MOM" and "HIRO BIT ME AGAIN.".
Three years later, Their parents were dead and Aunt Cass inherited them.
Tadashi lived under a cloud of grief for months, possibly a year, holding on to momentos, old photographs and a few faded stuffed bears his parents had first gotten him when he was one. He sobbed every night, crying into his pillow and blurts out depressing things like "They will never get to see me graduate middle school" and "Why did it have to be them."
Hiro, on the other hand, waddled in confusion. He hadn't been emotionally attached to his parents like his older brother had been, and apart from the slight weeping and quivering, all he felt was numbness. he would throw tantrums every night, screaming and kicking, refusing to go to bed. Then he would wake up and dismantle every single one of Tadashi's toy robots, much to his big brother's vexation.
Now, Hiro and Tadashi both continued to experience nightmares, and eventually both of them slept together in Tadashi's bed , leaving Hiro's side of the room vacant at night. The ritual didn't shun their nightmares away, but at least it lessened the heavy blow dealt to them afterwards and the screaming stopped.
In the first few days of her new parenthood, Aunt Cass had been busy arranging preparations to alter her nephews' living conditions and lifestyle, thus feeding them countless amounts of boxed processed hot pockets and kraft mac and cheese. Animated movies of all genres were shown repeatedly on the 12 inch TV in their shared room (heck, Cass wouldn't hesitate to screen violent movies if she were really exasperated at keeping Hiro tamed) , and rolls and rolls of duct tape were sacrificed in a weak attempt to imitate the expensive baby-proofing products her sister had insisted on buying years ago. (They had expected Hiro to become a exact clone of his older brother, not the opposite.).
So here they were now, silently anticipating the test results in the cafe's sitting area. (Well, everyone except Hiro, who was only interested in his 12 pack crayola and new colouring book). Two weeks had passed, and Cass had received a letter a few days ago indicating that the Head Of San Fransokyo's Education Department would pay a visit as they had apparently discovered a 'child-prodigy'. the SFED (San Fransokyo Education Department) had given the Hamada brothers more vexing and intensive tests after Cass had supposedly bragged about how smart her nephews were, like every other aunt would.
Cass's nervous pacing up and down the cafe's floorboards were interrupted by the chiming of bells and at first she assumed it was Mochi, but when she turned to scowl at the feline she stopped and her jaw went slack. The head of SFED stood in front of them, pushing the glass door open while the bells Cass had installed at the top signalling that a new customer had arrived tinkered. ( I won't really describe the Head of SFED because you know.. it'd be too draggy). Cass of course, rushed over immediately, showering him in greetings and offering him snacks and drinks and complimenting his tie while Tadashi sat there, rigid and stiff, and slightly awkward, while Hiro giggled and clapped his hands together as if it was all very funny to watch (It was, actually.)
When every one had finally, finally, settled down, the head of SFED introduced himself to both Hamada brothers. Tadashi smilled and waved awkwardly while Hiro made a face and turned his attention back to the colouring book, making the elephant on the page green with purple polka-dots and adding rocket boosters to it's hooved feet. The head pulled out a stack of paperwork from that huge briefcase of his. He commended both Hiro and Tadashi on their outstanding performance, blurted out some statistics about their test scores being the top 3% in all of San Fransokyo, which came as a surprise to Tadashi and Aunt Cass, but Hiro pretty much gave that smug look as if to say "Yeah, I know i'm awesome".
Then things started geting intense. Head announced that the Hamada family had a flipping genius, someone who amazingly seemed to be using more than 10% of his brain power. Apparently during the tests, one of them had filled out a mock university paper which had been mistakenly placed on the table by one of the examiners. It was from some fancy schmancy top notch university, and way beyond any of their capability level. 54% of the answers had been correct. (That's quite abit for a kid under 12)
"Congratulations, Mr. Hamada." The head stood up, ready to shake Tadashi's hand. Aunt Cass started squealing and blabbering on how she "always knew her nephews would become something great", "SOO PROUD OF YOU" and some along the lines of "THAT'S MY FAMI- MOCHI GET OFF THE COUNTER FOR GOD'S SAKE- I LOVE MY FAMILY."
Tadashi, meanwhile, stared shocked and confused at the paper in front of him.
"I didn't fill that out."
An awkward silence filled the cafe. Everyone stood absolutely still, like in those cartoons when Wild.E Coyote would be chasing Road Runner and didn't realise he ran off a cliff until he looked down and all went in slow motion before he zipped down rock bottom. Aunt Cass paused in the middle of squishing her nephew's face to death.
"Wha-What do you mean... you didn't do the paper?"
Tadashi pointed to the black lettering. "Nope. See, that's not my handwriting."
It was true. The writing on the paper looked like it had been carelessly scrawled across, black and messy, and very, very illegible, nothing like the neat and precise writing Tadashi constantly printed.
Head was perplexed. "Well, if it wasen't you... then who? We didn't test any kids other than the both of you that day."
As if everything clicked together at once, a high pitched voice piped up.
"It was me!"
Hiro Hamada stared at the group from his high chair, a pink crayon in his hand as he offered the most innocent look he could muster. Three faces peered back at him in total puzzlement.
Aunt Cass let go of Tadashi, ran a hand through her hair and smiled uncertainly at her youngest nephew. "Uh Hiro..I don't think now's the time to joke around sweetie.."
Head cleared his throat awkwardly while Tadashi cocked his head slightly and gave Hiro a bewildered look, one a look little similar to Chersire Cat from the Alice In Wonderland movie.
Hiro knitted his eyebrows together and pouted, slamming his little fists on the high chair tray. Five of his twelve pack crayola crashed and skidded to the floor, and he snapped violet clean in half.
"It. Was. Me! I. Wrote. Answers. Nerd. Paper. Exam!" Garbled static. A few unintelligible phrases. More slamming. Rocking back and forth in his confined dungeon-like high chair. He tried to climb out of his prison, not contemplating the possibility of falling and most likely breaking a few limbs. Tadashi immediately rushed over and tried to promptly secure his brother back in, but the younger kept clawing at his brother's face, tugging his hair and bashing his nose, and in the end Tadashi gave up and slung Hiro over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes before setting him on the ground, not forgetting to land him on his butt as sweet revenge, earning a wince and a dirty look.
Hiro got up and slowly waddled over in a diaper and a T-shirt with a cross between some rabbit and mouse looking cartoon creature (he never liked wearing pants for some reason) to where the grown ups were. He tiptoed, grabbing the edge of the table with his tiny hands for support and hoisted himself up so he was at eye level with the script on the table.
"That's my...letters. Messy...words." He scrunched up his nose, still not being to find the correct word for 'handwriting'.
Aunt Cass was baffled. "Hiro, I think that's enough sweetie." She picked him up firmly, professionally dodged his kicks and fists to the face, ignored his dying-bird like screeching and was about to bring him upstairs when she felt a tug on her blouse sleeve and turned to see Tadashi looking at her.
"Why not we just test him?" He offered, juet a little skeptical. "I mean, Hiro is smart after all. Really smart."
Cass sighed and Hiro took this as a form of consent, wriggling out of her grasp and toddling over, climbing up onto a chair. He looked directly at Head and folded his arms as if challenging him.
Head was not amused. He relented, and finally gave in to the whole situation, even though he found it preposterous.
They started off with some simple questions. The easiest picked from the script.
Hiro answered every single one correctly.
Head was sure that Hiro would never make it through the second question, but a few eyebrows were raised and he decided to move on to stage two.
This time, Head added two questions from the thinking skills sections to the equation of five or so questions.
Hiro got half of them right.
By this point everyone was completely amazed at Hiro's capability level. From time to time, Head would peer around the script, wondering if Hiro could see through the translucence of the paper, but the boy's head was focused at the scratch pad in front of him, scribbling some unintelligible working as he stuck his tounge out.
This toddler wasen't even 4 yet, and he knew his twelve times tables by heart.
Head, clearly not satisfied, kept testing and testing until he realized he had run out of questions. Indeed, Hiro had lived up to the expected score, minus a few careless mistakes.
The Head of SFED blinked once. Then again. Then he scratched his head. He murmured some unintelligible words under his breath like "unbelievable" and "how-", before scribbling a verdict on a yellow legal pad, stood up, shaked both Tadashi and Cass's hands, gave one last gaping look at Hiro, and left.
Both Tadashi and Aunt Cass stared, dumbfounded, at both Hiro and the now empty doorway. Tadashi shuffled uncertainly to the table and carefully picked up the slip of paper. He fidgeted slightly and handed it over to Aunt Cass, who took it wordlessly. She skimmed it quickly, then folded it in half, set it back on the table, turned and retreated upstairs, swiping three doughnuts from the glass case in the process. Cue round one of stress eating.
Tadashi could see the words printed on it even from where he was standing.
"Strongly advised to be placed in Intellectually Gifted Programme (IGP). Advised to skip pre-school."
So Hiro was officially a freaking genius. Huh. Who knew.
Now he looked at his younger brother from across the table. The yellow slip glowed between them like a flashing warning sign, but neither reached for it.
"How did you do it?"
Hiro had retrieved the colouring books and crayons, and had now proceeded about his task as if nothing had happened.
"Do what?" He twisted the paper wrapper of a blue crayon.
"You know.. that. Answering almost every thing correctly... Did you cheat?" Tadashi wasen't convinced. He knew his brother wasn't one to cheat, but he hadn't expected Hiro to be that smart.
Hiro shrugged and dragged green and blue across the paper in a poor attempt to create turquoise. It looked more like the little mermaid's puke.
"I'm smart." he replied simply.
The older Hamada picked up a stray crayon and twirled it absent-mindedly as he watched the toddler now try to combine pink and blue, frustrated and perplexed at why he kept ending up with purple and not indigo. (He was trying to blend a perfect rainbow, but it looked more like unicorn poop).
Tadashi was about to correct Hiro and tell him that violet and blue made indigo, not red, but he paused.
The kid was a genius, after all. He'd figure it out by himself sooner or later.
He shaked his head, smiling at his numbskull of a brother who was now furiously adding pressure to the purple crayon, darkening it to resemble some cheap indigo rip off, before turning to go upstairs
Maybe Hiro was smart, Tadashi thought.
He was just too smart for his own good.
...
(Author's note: BAM WE'RE DONE. I actually planned to make this chapter longer and talk more on the start of their education, but I wanted to do something with Hiro's crayons and felt this was the best way to end it to spend quite abit figuring out the chapter title because I want Hiro to have difficulty mixing the colours but not in a dumb ass way like "yellow and red makes green" NO. Ooh Hiro's a genius but I guess we already knew that. I'll be flying off tonight but I'm definitely writing on the plane so I can get a chapter or two up soon! Sorry for the delay again. Whoosh c: )