Slam! Tadashi cringes slightly as he the door to the kitchen closes hard behind him, but he decides to let it go. He has more important things to worry about than loud noises being made by doors. "Hiro?" he calls nervously, and then flinches at the high-pitched sound of his own voice. Even though he'd been stuck in female form since late morning, that didn't mean that he was used to it yet. When he doesn't get a response, he carefully exits the kitchen and heads out into the hall. "Hiro?" he tries again. No answer. He breathes a slight sigh of relief. At least he'd beat Hiro home-despite how crazy his whole world had become, he'd wanted to keep his promise to his little brother that he would be there when he got back from school. Still, as he wanders up the stairs and into the living room where he sinks down onto the couch, he puts his head in his hands and lets out a small groan, wondering how he's supposed to explain all of this to Hiro. Honestly, he doesn't even understand it himself-he had no idea what had caused his and Honey Lemon's transformations (well, he had a vague suspicion, but honestly it seemed pretty far-fetched. The porch behind the old coffee house where his parents had originally met wasn't actually magical-was it?) It certainly didn't help matters any that he'd been experiencing extreme abdominal pain all that afternoon. He hadn't said anything to Honey about it, but it was making him feel seriously nauseous and he hoped that this wasn't some horrible side effect of the gender swap. Honestly, genderbends were fine and usually pretty hilarious when they happened in shows or on the internet, but now he realized that they were absolute heck when they actually happened to you. Leaning his head back and trying to fight off the alternating urges to throw up or consume vast amounts of chocolate, he debates whether he could get away with cutting his hair short and just trying to speak in a lower register to try to keep Hiro from finding out what had happened. If nothing else, he really should get out of these clothes that Honey Lemon had coerced him to get at the mall. Sure, they actually fit him as opposed to the rest of the rest of his wardrobe at the moment, but at least it would be better to be slightly uncomfortable than for Hiro to find him in a skirt (seriously, even that slacks that he'd been wearing when he'd gotten swapped had gotten turned into a skirt-was the universe just seriously conspiring against him and trying to make him completely and utterly embarrassed?) Before he could make a move to go change, however, he suddenly hears the front door slam and the familiar sound of footsteps coming pattering up the stairs. "Shoot!" he thinks, frozen to the spot. It's too late to do anything now. He's just going to have to roll with whatever happens next, and he sends up a fervent prayer that things won't turn out as bad as he's imagining them.
"Tadashi, I'm home! Let the inventing begin!" Hiro shouted as he walked through the door, tossing his backpack to the ground.
"Tadashi, where are you?" he calls again when he doesn't get an immediate response. He knew that his brother was home—he'd seen his moped outside. The younger Hamada wandered into the living room, searching for his surprisingly absent niisan, and almost instantly froze. Instead of Tadashi, he saw a terrified looking woman sitting on the sofa.
Hiro stared right back at the woman in alarm, unsure of what to do. In his startled state, his brain started picking out random details—for example, he noticed that Tadashi's things were near the woman and that she looked frighteningly similar to his niisan. Her hair and eyes were the same color as his brother's, and both had an extremely similar facial structure. Still, none of that though explained who she was, what she was doing in his house, or why she had Tadashi's things. Maybe she was a friend of his brother's? But why hadn't his niisan told him that he was bringing someone over? And besides, he had promised that the weekend would just be for the two of them, and he wouldn't have gone back on his promise. Feeling extremely confused and a little frightened, the younger Hamada finally manages to get out, "W-w-who are you?"
Tadashi hates seeing how freaked out his little brother is-partly because he just hates to see his little bro scared, partly because this means that there's going to be no chance for a gradual or slow transition. It's going to have to be flat out confession from point one, and he dreads it, but he honestly can't let Hiro just freak out for any longer. "H-Hiro?" he finally manages to get out, slowly rising to his feet but not approaching him for fear of scaring him any further. "I-it's me-Tadashi."
"Y-you're kidding, right?" Hiro exclaimed after an uncomfortable silence, forcing out a short laugh. "Tadashi is my brother... who is a guy. And you most decidedly are not." He slowly backed away from the woman, getting really freaked out. Finally his brain, which was desperately searching for a plausible explanation, latches onto a solid idea and he says in a low voice, "Look, I don't know if you and Tadashi set this up, but if this is some kind of sick prank, you can stop. It's not funny—like, at all."
"Hiro, does it look like I'm joking?" Tadashi shoots back, his face turning slightly red from exasperation. It's hard enough to be dealing with these random changes without his otouto making things difficult. He can't fully blame his little brother for not believing him-he'd probably do the same thing if the roles were reversed-but that doesn't make things any easier. Letting out a tiny sigh to calm himself down and pushing his bangs and, consequently, his hat back up his forehead, he asks quietly, "What would it take to prove to you that I really am your brother?"
Hiro frowned, studying the woman. Everything about her screamed Tadashi, but he knew better than to just trust her word. He needed proof. Something no one but his niisan would know but would never ever tell someone, no matter what. "Tell me something only Tadashi and I would know," he declared.
"Oh, gosh, where do I even begin on that question?" Tadashi replies, a relieved smile on his face as he thinks over just how many random facts he could name, but tries to narrow it down to a few. "Let's see... I know that ever since you were born you've been terrified of lightning and when you were little you'd come sleep in my bed whenever it was storming outside. I know that you are extremely ticklish behind your left ear. I know that last night you and I went out joyriding around SF in a hover cart, following putting rocket boots on Mochi. And I also recall you requesting gummy bears on your pancakes this morning."
Hiro let out a huge grin, relief flooding him. "Tadashi it is you!" he exclaimed, only to start laughing. "So you really are a girl! How- why- what did you do to cause this?" He nearly doubled over with mirth. "Should I start calling you 'sis' now?"
Tadashi's initial relief that Hiro believes him is almost instantly replaced by the slight horror of realizing that his brother is going to take complete and total advantage of this, and not in a good way. "I honestly have no idea what happened," he replies to Hiro's first question, trying to keep his voice calm and ignore his otouto's obvious amusement at his predicament. "One second I was just having coffee with Hon-" He stops himself short, not wanting to admit to the fact that he was actually out with a girl, so he corrects, "Er, with a friend-and then the next thing I know, I look like this!" He gestures to his current appearance. Then, realizing that he's going to have to be firm if he doesn't want to lose complete and total control of the situation, he throws in, "And don't you dare start calling me 'sis', or so help me, you are going to be cleaning out the attic all weekend, along with a few other unpleasant chores I can think of!"
An evil grin on his face, Hiro replied, "Of course, ma'am. But did I hear you start to say a name? Were you with a girl, by any chance?" He was almost positive that his niisan had a crush on someone, but he could never get it out of him who exactly it was. Even if he didn't know the person's identity just yet, he was going to enjoy his brother's predicament as much as he could. That's what Tadashi got for messing with their weekend of fun, even if it was unintentional.
Tadashi instantly feels his face go even redder. "S-she's just a friend from the lab," he mutters, trying not to let on just how freaked out Hiro has him. How had his brother even managed to catch that slip up when he'd been so oblivious to the whole "otousan" thing that morning? "Nothing's g-going on," he finally protests, "so don't over analyze this!" He cringes at the slight squeak in his voice, which certainly isn't helping his case any-seriously, this is worse than back when he was in puberty and his voice had been changing.
Hiro's smirk grew when he heard Tadashi's voice squeak, a clear sign that his brother was lying through his teeth. "Sure," the younger Hamada drawls, "I totally believe you." He swore that he was going to find out who this girl was and see what he could do to get the two of them together. As much as he loved teasing his niisan, Tadashi deserved to be happy. Of course the younger boy would still tease him mercilessly about it—they were brothers! It was their job to tease each other!
Before he could get on with this match-making attempt, however, first Hiro had to figure out how to change his brother back. He seriously doubted that this mystery girl would want to date his niisan while he was in a girl's body. Besides, at the end of the day Hiro really would much rather have a big brother than a big sister.
Tadashi can tell that Hiro knows that he's lying, but at least his little brother doesn't call him on the carpet on it. He can handle the sarcasm better than a straight-on confrontation. "I'm sorry that this is going to sort of mess up our weekend," he apologizes, suddenly being hit by a wave of guilt as he realizes the problems that this sudden genderswapping is going to cause.
Hiro wanted to be angry at him, but seeing the guilt on Tadashi's face about the whole thing made the younger Hamada stop. "It's ok," he assured. "You didn't mean for this to happen. We'll figure out a way to change you back! The Hamada's can fix anything right?" He raised a fist towards his brother, grinning.
"Right," Tadashi agrees with a relieved smile. It's awesome knowing that he's got a little brother who will always be there no matter what. As much as they tease each other, they're honestly so blessed to have each other. He raises his fist to meet his brother's in their signature fist bump, but then he suddenly has to clutch his stomach as yet another bout of pain hits him, this one worse than all the preceding ones.
"Tadashi?" Hiro exclaimed when his niisan doubled over, fear for his brother's well-being filling him. Was this a side effect of the transformation? "What's wrong?" he asked desperately, having no idea what to do. Should he call the hospital? Their aunt? Should he not do anything and wait see what happens?
"I'm fine," Tadashi lies, forcing a smile onto his face. "I just-I think I'm just a little worn out from all of this craziness. Help me back up to our room?"
"Ok," Hiro agreed grabbing his brother's arm and helping him get up the stairs and onto his bed. "Can I get anything to help you feel better?"
Tadashi starts to say "no", but then, suddenly thinking better of it, he answers with a small smile, "Um, could you get me some juice from the fridge?"
"Yea of course!" Hiro responded, desperately wanting to do something to help Tadashi feel better. He raced down the stairs and pulled open the fridge, grabbing the first juice box he could find and ran back upstairs. "Here you go," he said passing Tadashi the box.
"Oh, t-thanks!" The older Hamada tries to smile and pretend like he isn't too upset by the fact that his brother had shown back up so quickly. Honestly, the juice had just been a distraction. He'd actually been hoping for a few minutes alone because he could tell that something not good was going on with his body (beyond the fact that it was now the opposite gender). When he'd been in the living room, he'd felt something that he didn't even want to think about going on in an area he also didn't want to think about, so he'd been planning to get up and lock the door as soon as Hiro was gone so he could give himself a looking over (something which was obviously going to be extremely uncomfortable, but necessary.) Unfortunately, however, his body had gone further AWOL and seemingly pinned him to the bed for the duration and he hadn't gotten the opportunity. It looked like he was going to have to go the old fashioned way of getting privacy, so, after drinking a few sips of the juice to make it appear that's what he'd actually wanted, he started to get up off of the bed.
"Do you need help?" Hiro asked, oblivious to his brother's plight. As much as he wanted to mock and tease Tadashi for being stuck as a girl, he couldn't bring himself to do so while his niisan was in obvious pain. Though his brother tried to hide it, he could tell Tadashi was hurting, he just wished his niisan would talk to him rather than hide.
"Hiro..." Tadashi turns slightly red. "I'm going to the bathroom-I think I'll be okay."
The younger Hamada blushed slightly at that answer and muttered, "Sorry... I just-umm, ok, I'll leave you too it then..." He realized he was probably mother hening his brother a bit, but Tadashi screaming in pain earlier had him worried. What if something was going on because of the change? Hiro hated not knowing what he should do.
"Right." Tadashi tries to make his way as normally as he can across the bedroom, although it's hard to do so when there's something hot and sticky running down the inside of his leg. It's all he can do not to slam the bathroom door as soon as he gets inside and his hand slips a few times as he tries to lock it, he's so nervous. "Okay, deep breaths Tadashi," he says quietly, trying to mentally coach himself through this extremely uncomfortable situation. "Stop freaking out and get this over with. This is your body. There's nothing to be afraid of." But he was wrong. Oh was he wrong. As soon as he sat down on the lid of the closed toilet and pulled up the hem of his skirt, he knew that something was extremely wrong. It takes him a full moment to process what he's seeing, and then with trembling fingers he reaches down and touches the dark red substance on his leg. No. No, this couldn't be happening. He was... bleeding?!
Hiro jumped when he heard his brother shout and asked, "Everything ok?"
Tadashi isn't sure how to respond to that. At least for the moment, the pain in his midsection has relieved, but that only seems to be because there is a steady stream of blood leaving his body, and there's no sign of if stopping. Phrases from his mother's old medical books jump out of his memory like bad nightmares: Internal bleeding. Extensive blood loss. Hypovolemic Shock. If this doesn't stop soon, there's a good chance that he isn't going to make it through the night, or maybe even the next couple of hours. People always ask that question, "What would you do if you knew you only had one hour left to live?" Well, here he was faced with that decision and suddenly he knew exactly what he wanted to do. Gulping convulsively and pulling his skirt back down to hide the blood, he reaches over to unlock the door and says in a quavery voice, "H-Hiro? Could you come in here please?"
Hiro frowned and raced into the bathroom, gasping when he saw the blood on his brother's legs.
Tadashi tries to put a brave face on. He wishes that Hiro hadn't seen the blood, but since he did he's going to have to try to make this as least painful for both of them as possible. "Hiro," he says, putting a hand on his little brother's shoulder. "I-I think I'm dying."
"What? No!" The younger Hamada's brain absolutely refused to believe this statement, and he tried desperately to think back to his health classes for a non-fatal reason why his niisan would be bleeding. Then his eyes go wide as a horrifying thought hits him.
"Uhh... Dashi...Um, er... where is the blood coming from?" he asks, feeling his face burn at the extremely awkward question but he had to ask. If it was what Hiro was thinking, it was possible that Tadashi wasn't dying... Or, at least he hoped he wasn't.
The older Hamada feels his face flaming. Why would Hiro ask something like that? Not wanting to provide that rather uncomfortable answer, he brushes the question away. "That's not important," he says, shaking his head slightly and putting his other hand on his otouto's shoulder. He looks into his little brother in the eyes, a sad smile on his face as he decides that it's time to come clean about how he really feels about him. "I-I have something I need to tell you, in case I don't get another chance-"
"Tadashi, stop!" Hiro exclaimed. "You're a girl now and I think... well you may be on your period. Not dying." He turned bright red when he said this, but he'd rather tell his brother that he thought he was menstruating than for Tadashi to give an embarrassing speech only to find out he wasn't actually dying. As perturbing as the whole situation was, the younger Hamada fervently wished it was the monthly letting of blood instead of something fatal, partly because he did not want to have to take his niisan to the hospital and try and explain all this weirdness and partially because he did not want to lose his brother (or sister, as he was at the moment.)
Tadashi freezes. His... "Oh my gosh, I'm an idiot." The older Hamada puts his head in his hands. He couldn't believe that he'd been so freaked out that he'd completely forgotten about that possibility. "Hiro, I'm so sorry I just put you through this!" he apologizes. "I-I'm a horrible brother. I'm doing my friggin' robotics project on the medical field, and I couldn't remember that part of human anatomy?"
Hiro grinned and reassured him, "It's ok, I'd freak out too if I was suddenly bleeding for no apparent reason!" Still, the younger Hamada couldn't help but feel slightly worried by how emotional the older was getting. His niisan was normally so calm and collected… What was happening to him?
"You sure?" Tadashi asks, looking up at his little brother in relief and feeling tears beginning to prick his eyes.
"Yea," Hiro promised, wrapping his arms around his niisan. "You just need to relax, okay bro? And maybe put on a pad or something..."
Tadashi blushes again at the reference to the feminine product. "Um, y-yeah," he agrees, forcing himself to get up so he can deal with the problem at hand. "I'll-I'll be back in a minute, 'kay?"
"Ok," Hiro replied, not feeling so bad for laughing now that his brother had calmed down some. Maybe he actually could get away with some teasing...
Tadashi half-walks, half-limps his way to his aunt's bathroom where he takes care of the said problem before returning to the bedroom. Honestly, his body is just making him feel horrible at this point at this point, so he flops face-first onto his bed, not really wanting to move or talk or do anything.
A part of Hiro doesn't want to mention what he'd just realized after seeing how awful Tadashi was feeling again, but the other part knows his brother probably isn't thinking about this and it was too tempting to pass up getting another chance to mess with him.
"You know," the younger boy slowly began, a smile creeping up on his lips despite his best effort keep his face neutral, "this means that if you stay a girl for another month you could technically get pregnant..." He couldn't stop the laugh that burst out of him as he adds, "You ready to be a daddy, or mommy, as the case would be?"
"WHAT?!" Tadashi looks up at Hiro in complete and utter horror. "You-you can't be serious? Oh my gosh, Hiro, I'm not ready for that!"
"What, you're not planning on doing anything where you'd get pregnant, are you?" Hiro replies, greatly amused by his brother's reaction.
"No..." Tadashi responds, drawing his knees up to his chest and still feeling extremely freaked out. "But what if something happens that I can't control? Oh gosh, I'm not sure I'm going to be able to leave the house now..."
"Don't your female friends go out?" Hiro asked, smirking. "Besides, you're a black belt in karate! You could totally defend yourself if the worst came to worst!"
"You're right, you're right," Tadashi agrees with a sigh after considering this for a moment. "Sorry, this is just-it's a little weird for me, you know?"
"It's ok," the younger Hamada reassured him. "What does Aunt Cass do when she gets emotional?"
"Stress eating-and hey, who said anything about me being emotional?" Tadashi shoots back, feeling slightly offended.
Hiro raised an eyebrow and deadpanned, "You've gone from happy to completely panicked to calm to freaking out again and angry all in a span of less than 5 minutes."
"You're right. Oh my gosh, I'm completely losing it," Tadashi cries, putting his head in his hands and seriously hating that he has the urge to cry again.
Hiro stifled a groan. Seriously, they needed to get Tadashi back to normal as soon possible-he had no idea how he'd handle this for very long. How did other girls not lose their minds?
"Bro, just relax, ok?" he finally says. "We'll get through this, just like we always do. But we can't do that if you keep freaking out on me!"
"Right." Tadashi tries to take a nice long breath to calm himself down, knowing that the last thing that they need is for him to be getting even more emotional. But somehow in trying to contain his emotions, he only makes things worse and suddenly burst out crying.
Unsure of what else he could do, Hiro awkwardly wrapped his arms around his brother, saying, "It's going to be ok, I promise. We will be ok. We're going to do this together."
Tadashi doesn't say anything, only wrapping his arms around his otouto and hugging him close. Somehow snuggling with his little brother always makes him feel better.
Hiro could feel his niisan slowly relaxing, in turn made him sigh with relief. At least something was working. Tadashi had always been a major cuddler, so it made some sense. He just needed to figure out a way to keep him relaxed.
"Thank you," the older boy finally mumbles, his face pressed up against his little brother's shoulder. "You're amazing, you know that?"
"Not as awesome as you are, bro," Hiro answered softly. Then, things getting a little too mushy for his taste, he adds, "Now, we'd better get working on a way to fix this or else I really will have to start saying 'sis'."
"Right," Tadashi agrees with a firm nod. The sooner they did this, the better. On top of his own problems, Honey Lemon needed to get back to normal too, so technically he owed it to her to try to figure out a way to fix this. He starts to get up from the bed, only to cringe as yet another wave of stomach pain and nausea hits him.
"Maybe we should start by looking up some ways to help with the pain," Hiro suggested, frowning when he saw his brothers face twisted in discomfort.
"Good idea," Tadashi agrees, wincing slightly as he eases himself back down.
Hiro jumped on his computer and typed "How to help period cramps". Instantly dozens of lists with recommended ideas popped up on the screen.
"Ok, let's see..." the younger Hamada mumbles, browsing through the suggestions. "This list says to eat banana's and omega-3 fatty acids...yuck. It also says to not drink caffeine and to drink tea. You can also use heating pads on your stomach or massage it… Oh, this sounds fun-acupuncture! Personally, I've been dying to poke you with a bunch of needles." He grins mischievously over at his brother.
"NO ACUPUNCTURE!" Tadashi shouts, feeling instantly alarmed. "Seriously bro, have you gone mental, or have you always been this secretly sadistic? Gosh sakes, I thought I raised you better than this..."
Hiro burst out laughing at his niisan's shout and assured, "I was kidding, sheesh! I don't want to poke you with needles, I promise. I mean, apparently when a professional does it, it works wonders, but that doesn't do us much good. What about any of these other ideas?"
"Well, I know that heating pads sometimes work for upset stomachs," Tadashi responds after a moment's thought. "Let's give that a try."
"I'll get the heating pad," Hiro replied, racing off to the kitchen. He quickly found the heating pad and heated it up in the microwave before bringing it back up to his brother. He carefully placed the pad on the older Hamada's stomach and asked, "Does that help?"
"Yeah, it does," Tadashi agrees after the heat has a moment to start helping. He gives his little brother a tired smile. "Thanks, Hiro. You're amazing."
"Thanks," Hiro muttered, not feeling quiet as amazing as Tadashi seemed to think he was. "We can see how this does and try something else if it doesn't help, okay?" he adds.
"Sounds good," Tadashi agrees. He allows himself to close his eyes—maybe it wouldn't be so bad to just… let himself rest…for a…minute… Zzzzzz…
