Tadashi's eyes had been shut for what feels like only a moment, but the next time he opens them he realizes that quite some amount of time has passed as the sun is now low in the sky. "Hiro?" he calls, feeling somewhat disoriented and trying to locate his younger brother. What was he doing in bed in the middle of the afternoon? Why did his body feel so weird, and furthermore, why did he have a heating pad on his stomach? Then the events of the day come back to him and he lets out a low groan. So much for hoping that this had all been a dream. Why couldn't it be that the nice dreams were the ones that came true and the bad ones that stayed as dreams?
Hiro smirked as his brother drifted off-he'd really worn himself out. Then the younger Hamada settled down at his desk to get some homework done. Though he'd told himself that there would be no homework this weekend, Tadashi knocking himself out left him with little excuse to not get some stuff done. Besides, with his school assignments out of the way, they could focus on trying to get the older boy back to normal. He had expected for his niisan to wake up long before he finished, but when he completed his work and found that the his brother was still fast asleep, he'd decided to try working on a few ideas as to how to get him back to normal. He hadn't gotten very far when his brother finally woke up and started calling out his name.
"Over here," Hiro said, waving to reassure his niisan that everything was all right. "I've been trying to come up with something to change you back, but without knowing what changed you, I'm kind of stuck..."
"Oh wow, you've been working while I was asleep?" Tadashi feels guilty for having passed out on his brother like that. Truth be told, though, he does feel a lot better now that he'd gotten a chance to rest and, on top of that, his thoughts had seemed to have finally settled while his brain had been temporarily turned off and things were a lot clearer. Forcing himself back up to sitting position, he says, "Honestly, I'm beginning to get the picture that we're just going to have to wait this one out and see what happens. Usually in genderbends I've read about online things work themselves out eventually." Then, suddenly feeling the emptiness in his stomach (he hadn't eaten since breakfast that morning), he swings his legs over the side of the bed and asks with a slight grin, "So, how would you feel about me making us some dinner?"
"Sure," Hiro replied, following Tadashi downstairs. "But there's a problem with this plan of yours: yeah, things work out ok in stories, but last I checked, this isn't a story! I don't see how this will just 'sort itself out'. I do not want to have you as a sister instead of a brother! That would get way too weird, especially for whatever girl you've been crushing on." Despite the seriousness of the situation, he couldn't resist throwing in the comment about his niisan's crush—maybe, if he played his cards right, he could finally get some clues as to who this mystery person was.
"Hey, I don't want to be stuck like this any more than you do, but until we know why this happened, I don't know what we can realistically do," Tadashi fires back. "Even if we figured out how to switch me back, what if whatever caused this in the first place gets reversed and then I'm stuck as a girl again, possibly permanently?! And for the record, a) Honey is not my crush, and b)...she actually got genderbent too." He cringes slightly, hoping that Honey won't kill him later for revealing this fact, but maybe being at least slightly open about this will finally get Hiro off of his case.
"Wait... so your crush's name is Honey?" Hiro asked, a wicked smile on his face. "And you were having coffee with her when you guys got changed?"
"She's not my crush, but yes, we were having coffee when this happened," Tadashi confirms. Then suddenly his eyes go wide as the realization hits him. "Wait, you don't think it was something in the coffee, do you? I mean, we've known Miss June for years-she'd never do that, even if she knew how!"
"Sure she's not..." Hiro answered, sarcasm dripping from his voice. His niisan could deny it all he wanted, but he could tell that his brother liked this Honey. Why else would he take her to the coffee shop where their parents had met? Still, Tadashi had a point. "Miss June couldn't have done this even if she wanted to," the younger Hamada agreed with a laugh.
"Yeah, not only am I pretty sure that she doesn't have some secret lab for mixing up gender-bending serums, she's waaaay too nice," Tadashi agrees, heading over to the fridge to find ingredients for dinner. "I mean, seriously, she's a little bit on the conniving side like what she did with setting Dad and Mom up, but she wouldn't do this!"
"Any particular reason that you chose that coffee shop to take Honey to?" Hiro asked, a mischievous grin on his face.
"Um, because it's like the closest one to the lab?" Tadashi responds, glad that he has a half-decent explanation.
"Right..." Hiro deadpanned. Seriously, a reality TV show host would be having a field day with this!
Knowing that his younger brother wouldn't leave him alone until he had the full story, Tadashi lets out a sigh of defeat and admits, "All right, I took her there because of the porch. I met her back in orientation, and we've sort of gotten to know each other, but the truth is... I really want to be good friends with her. I mean, she's smart and funny and adorable-and she's one of the first people that I've ever met who was actually really excited about her field of study. I mean, you should see how big her eyes get whenever she talks about chemistry- it's like the cutest thing in the world! And I thought that taking there might, well...y'know, help things along."
"Right... help along the totally platonic and not at all romantic friendship you have with this girl who you think is cute and adorable. Which I totally believe is completely and utterly platonic. Because all platonic friends go to the coffee shop where their parents met and call each other cute. Totally not romantic," Hiro teased.
"Okay, so maybe I do have a bit of a crush on her," Tadashi finally admits, unable to keep from smiling slightly because it's nice to finally be able to talk to someone about this, even if he knows that he's liable to get teased about it. "I can't help it. She's just...so amazing, y'know?"
Hiro smirked, feeling victorious. He finally knew who his brother was crushing on. Now he just had to find a way meet her... "What's she like?" he plies, deciding to see how far he could take this.
"Oh man, where do I begin?" Tadashi grins. "For one thing, she's got a great sense of humor. She's really dedicated to her work, but she doesn't get so wrapped up in it that she forgets to smile or have fun. She's really nice to everyone, and you can tell that it isn't forced-it's just the way she is. She's sort of like a ray of sunshine-you can just see her coming towards you from halfway across the room and feel instantly better about everything, and she somehow always knows exactly how to turn a bad day around without even trying. I guess in a way she sort of reminds me of you when you were younger."
"M-m-me?" Hiro stammered, shocked. He never quite knew what to say whenever his niisan complimented him like that. "I was like a ray of sunshine?" he eventually said, trying to hide how embarrassed he was by the compliment.
"Well, yeah," Tadashi agrees, finally turning his attention back to getting out the cutting board and the vegetables for dinner. "Seriously, you were like the happiest little kid on the planet! You were always running around in your own little happy fantasy world, building things and never letting anyone else's limits hold you back. You thought you could change the whole world, and no one believed that more than I did-especially when you'd smile at me with that big gap-tooth grin of yours." He turned back to look at Hiro with a slightly sad expression on his face. "You know that I hardly ever see you smile anymore?"
Hiro slumped over slightly and mumbled, "It's hard to smile when no one thinks you're worth anything..." He couldn't look his brother in the eye, embarrassed by the sudden surge of emotion that had filled him.
"Hey, don't say that!" Tadshi cries, hurrying over and kneeling down in front of Hiro, putting both of his hands on his brother's shoulders to make sure that he's paying attention to him. "You are worth so, so much-more than you could ever possibly know. God has great things in store for you-things that are going to blow everyone's minds. Every night when I pray for you, I just know it's going to come true. But you've just got to have a little patience while He's working things out. And for the record, to me you're worth more than everyone else in the whole world put together. You're my little bro, and I would happily put my life on the line for you."
Hiro opened and closed his mouth a few times, trying and failing to get the words out. He blinked a few times, feeling his eyes beginning to grow misty. It seemed no matter how horrible he was, his niisan still loved him. He ducked his head, trying and failing to hide the tears that were forming. "I feel like I'm the one turning into a girl..." he muttered by way of explanation, forcing out a weak laugh that sounded pathetic even to him. He wondered sometimes if God would be disgusted with how he acted, going out illegally bot fighting all of the time… "Would God—would God love me even if I kept doing bad things and kept messing up?" he finally asks his brother quietly.
"Oh Hiro..." Tadashi hugs him close. "Of course He would! Do you think the rest of us don't make a mess of things every day? I think He understands that we're weak and we make mistakes, but He's always waiting there for us whenever we fall to pick us back up again." He tries to grasp a better way to comfort his little brother, and then the words of an old song come to him. "Someone put it like this once: 'Let me tell you a secret about a father's love, a secret that my daddy said was just between us. He said, Daddies don't just love their children every now and then. It's a love without end, amen.' That's how God loves you, and that's how I love you too, okay little bro?"
Hiro weakly smiled and muttered, "Sorry I... I just don't know what's wrong with me today..." He tried to subtly wipe away the tears that were trying to form, but didn't quite succeed. "I... I just want you to be proud of me..." he finally whispers.
"Hey, never apologize for being honest about what you're feeling," Tadashi answers, reaching up to lightly brush his brother's hair out of his face. "And I will always, always be proud of you, no matter what you do."
Hiro looked up at his niisan and said, "You're the best brother/sister ever, you know that, right?"
"Well, I try," Tadashi responds with a slight wink, deciding to let the whole "sister" thing slide. "Now, do you want to help me with making the pizza?" he asks, getting back up.
"Sure, what do you need me to do?" Hiro asks, glad for the distraction and that all of the emotional stuff was finally over.
"Um, maybe get out the pepperoni and start chopping some vegetables while I work on the crust?" Tadashi suggest, going into the cupboards to grab the ingredients that he needs.
"Ok!" Hiro agreed, grabbing the toppings for the pizza.
As he starts working on the dough, the older of the Hamadas can't help but think of how similar this is to this morning. That in turn leads him to think about how similar that morning had been to his dream with little Hiro...
.no. Tadashi can't help but feel a tiny spark of fear in his heart as his eyes go wide. Not here. Not now. The last thing that he needs is for those feelings to come back right when things were actually starting to be okay between him and his brother. Out of desperation, he does the only thing he can think of to clear those thoughts out of his head. Reaching into the bag of flour, he picks up a handful while his otouto's head is turned and shouts, "DOUGH FIGHT!"
"Wha-?" Hiro began ask, only get a face-full of flour. He blinked in shock, the situation vividly reminding of the dream he'd had earlier. Pushing the déjà vu aside, though, he smirked before grabbing some flour and throwing it at his niisan, laughing, "You're gonna get it now, bro!"
"You've got to catch me first," Tadashi shoots back, ducking beneath the table, but not before launching another flour bomb.
Hiro dove out of the way of the bomb, grabbing some of the vegetables he'd been chopping and throwing them over the table, hoping a that at least a few would hit his target.
Tadashi laughs as he gets rained on by chopped veggies, and then gathers them back up to toss back at his otouto.
Hiro, realizing that he was out of ammo, jumped towards the counter and grabbed some of the pizza dough. He threw it at his brother just as a few of the vegetables hit his own face.
"Whoa!" Tadashi laughs, wiping the dough off. Leaping up from beneath the table, he makes a grab for the dough bowl, and just barely manages to get a scoop out of it. He's about to lob it at his younger brother when he suddenly gets a better idea. Instead of throwing it at his otouto, he hug-tackles him and then puts the dough on the end of Hiro's nose. "There," he says, sounding satisfied. "Now we match."
The younger Hamada froze when his brother put the dough on his face. That was...unexpected. Did Tadashi know about the dream, or was it all just one big crazy coincidence? A part of him wanted to ask, but another part of him was afraid of getting laughed at. It was ridiculous, really-there was no way they could have possibly had the same dream... right?
"Well," he finally said, breaking the silence, "the bad news is it looks like we lost our dinner... But, on the plus side, at least you don't have anything to burn. You should really get Aunt Cass to teach you how to cook without burning everything."
Earlier Tadashi would have instantly freaked out at his otouto saying this, trying to figure out if it was a reference to the dream. But, honestly, he'd had just so much weird stuff happen to him that day, plus it sounded like something his brother would say on a regular basis (Tadashi was, in fact, an excellent cook although Hiro refused to admit it), that he just let it slide. Grabbing the phone, he tosses it to Hiro. "Here, it sounds like we're having takeout," he says with a smile, getting up to start cleaning the mess they'd made. Still, not willing to let the jab about his cooking go unpunished, he adds, "And as for burning everything, I'm guessing that means that you don't want any homemade chocolate chip cookies later."
"No, no I want them..." Hiro answers, trying to make it sound off-handed. "I mean, it'll be good practice for you and I will gladly sacrifice myself and eat them all so you don't have to endure the horror of eating them. That's just how great a brother I am!"
"The world thanks you for your willingness to suffer," Tadashi deadpans to the first remark with a bemused smirk, starting to mix the ingredients for the cookies.
"I'm a giver," Hiro agreed, a smirk on his face. Then he dialed their favorite order-out place, craving pizza after almost getting a delicious home-made one. Once he was done ordering, he put the phone up and said, "Pizza'll be here in 30 minutes."
"Good," Tadashi says with a relieved smile, continuing to work on the dough. "The last thing we need tonight is either of us getting even more emotional because we don't have any food in our stomachs."
"Want some help?" Hiro offers, before quickly adding, "Unless you plan on throwing dough at me again..."
"I won't if you promise not to insult my cooking," Tadashi replies, giving him a light whack with the whisk.
"Deal!" Hiro agreed. "What would you like me to do, Chef Big Bro?"
"Um... find some chocolate chips and whatever else you want to put in the cookies," Tadashi finally replies after giving it a moment's thought.
"Are you sure whatever I want?" Hiro teased, grabbing chocolate chips and pecans. "Cuz if that's the case, I'm going to dump gummy bears in there!"
"Pecans, yes-gummy bears no," Tadashi responds, giving him a slight grin. Honestly, his brother probably thought that gummy bears were their own food group…
"You're no fun," Hiro fake-pouted, setting the chocolate chips and pecans down next to his brother before asking, "What now, Chef Bro?"
"Hm... if you can get out some cookie sheets while I start the oven preheating, I think we can get these bad boys cooking," Tadashi replies with a slight smile.
Hiro nodded and pulled out the cookie sheets while his niisan started the oven. Then together they started scooping out the dough onto the sheets. "Ready when you are!" the younger boy announces a few minutes later.
"All right, let's put them in," Tadashi agrees, sliding the first tray in. Then startles as he hears the doorbell ring. "Oh, the pizza must be here! Do you think you can finish with these in while I get that?" he asks, wiping his hands on a towel.
"Sure thing," Hiro agrees, giving him a mock-salute.
Chuckling slightly at his brother's antics, Tadashi heads out into the main hall to answer the door and get their dinner.
"Pizza!" the delivery man announced when the door opened. Then he let out an involuntary gasp as he saw the woman who was standing there. "Oh, wow…"
"Um... hi?" Tadashi responds, wondering for a moment why the guy was staring at him like that. Then it hits him. Oh no. Oh no oh no oh no! OH HECK NO! This guy wasn't trying to flirt with him, was he?!
The pizza guy blankly held onto the pizza box, forgetting his purpose for even being here as he said, "Do you have a map? Cuz I'm getting lost in your eyes..." Man this girl had pretty eyes. And her hair was perfect. She was perfect. He'd never seen anyone quite like her before... It was official—he had finally found the one: his soul mate. It was destiny. It had to be! Fate had sent him to this house so that he could give this girl her deep dish peperoni pizza and they could fall madly in love.
Tadashi freezes. Oh, this is wrong. This is wrong on so many levels. And now he's extremely glad that he's never tried to use a pickup line in his life because now he knows just how awkward it is to be on the receiving end up one. "Um...t-thanks?" he finally stammers as he takes the pizza, not sure what else to say. Maybe if he's polite and just doesn't show any interest, the guy will go away.
Unfortunately, the pizza guy took the woman's thanks as a prompt to keep going. "I'd offer you a cigarette, but you're already smoking hot," he tells her coyly. Maybe if he keeps flirting long enough, he can get her number so they can start planning the first date in what was sure to be a long, blissful series of them, culminating in a moonlit proposal, a gorgeous wedding, and the perfect Happily Ever After.
Tadashi freaks out for two seconds-seriously, was this guy for real? Cigarettes? That's both horrible for a person's health and one of the worst lines he'd ever heard! But how was he supposed to get him to stop? Then, suddenly, all of his years spent reading every book in the public library, including all of the teen girl ones, finally come in handy as the proper line comes to him. "I like your approach," he says, getting into the role by putting one hand on his hip and giving the guy a smirk. "Now let's see your departure."
The pizza guy, though, only heard "I like your approach" and took this as a sign to say, "Hey I lost my number on the way over... can I have yours?"
"Well, I would give it to you," Tadashi responds with fake sweetness, probably enjoying this way too much, "but I'd be afraid that you'd actually call."
The pizza sighed at her sweet voice. But why didn't she want him to call? Maybe he just wasn't trying hard enough. "I hope you know CPR, because you took my breath away."
"I do" Tadashi replies, beginning to feel fed up with the guy's incessant flirting-can't he take a hint? "But honestly, I have a black belt in karate and I'd rather deck you one and just finish the job."
He didn't know why this chick was being so unreasonable, he was complimenting her! She should be begging for a date. What if she had a boyfriend, though? That was it. She was taken. Instantly he feels crushed—but it doesn't take him long to bounce back. "Oh I get it, you probably have a boyfriend right?" he says, trying to sound unconcerned. "That's cool- I can still give you my number in case things don't work out!" If he had to, he would hunt the guy down and force him to break up with her—it was destiny, he was meant to be with this girl, and nothing would stand in the way of their love!
"Tell you what-how about instead of you giving me your number, I give you a clue?" And with that, Tadashi slams the door in the guy's face.
The delivery guy stands there, blinking his eyes rapidly. Wait, had she just slammed the door in his face? Most people would be deterred by this—but not him. Oh no. This was fate, he just knew it! "I will come back for you," he says determinedly, heading back to his car to do his next delivery. It didn't matter how long it took—he would see her again, and when he did they would profess their undying love for each other and live happily ever after!
"And that is how the pizza gets served," Tadashi says meanwhile, nodding his head in satisfaction and blissfully unaware that his future was being planned for him in the mind of the poor, deluded pizza delivery boy he had just shut down.
Hiro, who had been listening the whole time, burst out laughing when Tadashi slammed the door shut.
"That was hilarious!" he exclaimed, doubled over with laughter. "Apparently you are way better looking as a girl than as a dude! You may have to get a fake boyfriend to shake off creeps like that!"
"Ya think?" Tadashi shakes his head, still feeling vaguely ticked off at the delivery person. "Now I know why girls complain about guys so much-I didn't realize how many jerks there were out there! Seriously, he didn't even know me and he thinks he has the right to ask for my number! Unbelievable!"
"Hey, at least you've never done anything like that." Hiro said, trying to make his brother feel a little better. "And if you ever feel tempted to even remotely act like that, just think about this whole situation-this, and know that I'd punch you if you ever did."
"Trust me, I never had any inclination to, and if anything I'm probably going to punch out any guy I see trying to pull any funny business like that on a girl," Tadashi agrees, nodding his head firmly.
"Maybe all of this happened so you'd know how annoying getting unwanted attention is and so you'd be more sensitive to it and punch out any crazy guys you see hitting on girls like that," Hiro suggested before joking, "Or the universe was just bored and wanted its own live action soap opera to watch."
"I don't know about that last part, but I'm definitely going to be a lot more sensitive to what girls have to go through after this," Tadashi agrees with a slight chuckle before going vaguely serious. "For example, what they have to go through to get clothes! I mean, honestly, we just walk into a store, find a pair of jeans and a t-shirt that fit, and we're good to go-maybe a little bit more effort if we're trying to dress up, but still, it's fairly simple. Them? They've got like fifty different stores with a million different types of clothing in them that they have to sort through! I mean, jeggings? Pencil skirts? Bolero jackets? Who comes up with this stuff? And heaven help the poor girl who visits a makeup counter-it's like getting attacked by the mafia or something!"
"Careful, bro, or you'll start thinking like a girl," Hiro teased before answering his question with a sight shrug, "I'm pretty sure the whole thing's just another quick way for people to make money-like Valentine's day. I mean, what is the point of that holiday? Shouldn't you always celebrate loved ones?"
Tadashi's about to answer that first part when he was struck by the wisdom of Hiro's last statement. Seriously, sometimes he can't believe that Hiro was only 13 years old. Still, as an older brother, he can't pass up an opportunity like that to get all sappy, so he merely says, "Oh, you mean like-this?" He instantly glomps onto his little brother, glad to finally have an excuse to give him a hug.
"Gah!" Hiro exclaimed in fake agony. "Nooo, girl cooties! I'm going to die!" He pretending to be in the throes of death, slumping in Tadashi's arms and whispering, "Tell Aunt Cass... I... Love... her..." Then he dramatically fake-passed out before cracking an eye open and asking, "How convincing was that?"
"Terrible," Tadashi laughs. "Good effort, though."
Hiro stuck out his tongue and laughed. "I think I was amazing!"
"Well, don't quit your day job to become an actor, that's all I can say," Tadashi chuckles as the timer on the oven alerts him to the fact that the cookies are done and he goes over to pull the trays out.
"Oh come on, you're crushing my dream!" Hiro lamented as he watches his brother. "I've secretly always wanted to be an actor and now you've ruined it! You've crushed my heart and soul beyond repair! I'll never do anything but lie around, wondering what could have been! I hope you're happy!"
"Since when have you wanted to be an actor?" Tadashi returns with a slight grin, now done with the cookies and moving on to pulling out plates and cups. The day he saw Hiro reciting Shakespeare on the stage was the day Aunt Cass became a dog person.
"Since always!" Hiro dramatically declared, throwing his arms out. "I love it more than working at Hamada Bros Inc.-especially since you crushed my dream and made me become a lifeless couch potato with no hopes and dreams!"
Tadashi lets out his own dramatic gasp and puts a hand up to his forehead, pretending to be about to faint. "More than Hamada Bros Inc? No, it cannot be! What sort of witchery has caused you to spout such heresy?!"
Pretending to cry, Hiro whispered, "You... when you crushed my dream!"
"Oh, give it a rest," Tadashi giggles, unable to stay serious for too long when his brother's acting like this. "You told me back in junior high, and I quote, 'If I ever have to read another page of Romeo and Juliet in my life I am going to barf multicolored gummy bear puke all over the teacher's shoes.'"
"Spoil sport," Hiro grumbled between laughs. "How can anyone read that garbage, though? Who kills themselves for someone they just met? You might be able to convince me to marry someone, but not kill myself!"
"Yeah, and I wouldn't want you to," Tadashi agrees. "That's definitely not the type of girl I want to see you with."
"What, suicide a bit too extreme for you?" Hiro teased, playful grin on his face. "What if I told you I had found my one true love and I would do anything for her?"
"If it was the only way for you to save her life, than maybe," Tadashi responds, suddenly going somewhat serious. "But I'd never let you kill yourself just to make a statement. I-I couldn't lose you like that, Hiro."
Hiro frowned at the intensity of his brother's voice, a tight feeling in his chest. "I wouldn't ever do that..." he says quietly. "And I don't know what I'd do if... if something bad happened to you...Promise you won't do anything stupid like that?"
Tadashi gets down on his knees in front of his little brother. "Hiro," he says, taking one of the boy's hands in his own, "I swear to you, on my honor as a Hamada brother, that no matter what happens, no matter how bad things look, I will always, always come back to you."
Hiro ducked his head so his niisan wouldn't see that he was getting teary eyed from his declaration. "I'll hold you to that bro," he whispers, "even if I have to drag you back to the land of the living myself."
"Hey, I hope it never comes to that, but thank you for the offer," Tadashi says with a slight smile, tucking a strand of hair lovingly behind his brother's ear.
Hiro laughed and rolled his eyes, trying to lighten the situation before saying with fake intensity, "It better not! I don't want to accidentally start the zombie apocalypse while trying to re-animate you!"
"No zombie apocalypse," Tadashi promises, giving him an amused smile and getting back up off of the floor. "Now c'mon, let's stop being so depressing and get eating!"