The next week was spent in a flurry of secret planning sessions, stealing minutes out of time meant to be used for cleaning to work out details and rushed conversations whispered when Tadashi was out of hearing range. Fortunately by now both Tadashi and Aunt Cass were used to Hiro going all out for the elder Hamada's birthday so they put up with Fred and Hiro acting like they were planning the heist of the century. It was about halfway through the week that, after much deliberation, Fred finally hit upon the right gift for Tadashi-a gift that he knew would mean more to him than anything else. He pitched the idea to Hiro, knowing that he would need his help to pull it off, and to Aunt Cass, knowing that he would need her approval. Miraculously, both agreed, and so the preparation for the biggest surprise of all for Tadashi's birthday was set into motion. Fred was able to complete his part with relatively little difficulty, although he had to call upon Aunt Cass for information that he didn't know. Hiro, on the other hand, bore a great brunt of the weight-it all came down to whether or not he would be able to complete his part to see if the desired goal would even be possible. Fortunately, though, Hiro was a child prodigy and a robotics genius and so, late in the evening on the eve of Tadashi's birthday, everything came together like a neatly tied bow.
"You. Are. AMAZING!" Fred cries, grinning as Hiro shows off his handiwork in the privacy of his own bedroom-they couldn't let Tadashi see it for fear that he'd start asking questions and ruin the surprise (not that he wasn't already trying to get information out of them-they'd both taken to carrying earplugs just in case his patience wore out and he took to more devious means of ferreting out the truth.)
"Well, we won't really know for sure if it works until Tadashi tries it out himself," Hiro answers, wiping his brow and looking tired but pleased. "Still, from the tests I've run on it, it seems like it should, so here's hoping for the best!"
"Again-AMAZING!" Fred cries before laughing and shaking his head. "Seriously-thank you for being willing to help out with all of this. I couldn't have done this without you."
"I'm not doing it for you, I'm doing it for Tadashi," Hiro says flatly before grinning and nudging the other man when he sees the crestfallen look on the his face.. "I'm messing with you! Seriously, you need to learn what sarcasm is, bro! Really-I'm glad to do it for both your and Tadashi's sakes. This was a really, really cool idea on your part. I know I never would have even come up with something like this on my own-or, if I had, I would have been too scared for my nii-chan's 'safety' to ever go through with it. But you-you're crazy enough to have the idea, push through with it despite the obstacles, and then actually manage to pull it off!"
"Thanks, I think?" Fred replies, not sure if that was really a compliment or not but deciding to take the positive spin on it.
Hiro grins at him before letting out a yawn and checking the clock on the wall. "Aw man, it's getting late," he says, beginning to pack up his work. "We'd better both be heading to bed if we actually want to be awake to give Tadashi his surprise tomorrow!"
"True that!" Fred laughs.
"You going to go see him before leaving?" Hiro asks with a knowing smile.
"You know he'd never forgive me if I didn't say goodnight to him," Fred answers with a smile of his own.
"That is true!" Hiro agrees, rolling his eyes but looking more amused than annoyed, like he would have only a couple of weeks back. "Well, have fun with that-but not too much fun!" he adds, his tone playful but Fred knew that he meant what he said. The younger boy might have lightened up about the fanboy's relationship with his brother, but he was still extremely protective of his nii-chan and wouldn't stand for Fred doing anything that he thought might even potentially hurt him.
"Aye aye, captain!" Fred agrees, giving him a mock salute but keeping his own voice serious enough to let the younger boy knew that he didn't take the warning lightly.
"All right then-goodnight, Fred," HIro says, smiling as he heads for the bathroom to start getting ready for bed. "See you bright and early!"
"That you will," Fred answers, grinning slightly before letting himself into the pool room via Hiro's own personal entrance to it.
He walks into the room, the door latching shut behind him with a soft "click", before scanning the area for the merman. Part of him wondered if Tadashi might have already gone to bed, but he didn't get five steps in before his boyfriend's head surfaced above water at the edge of the pool nearest him.
"Hey!" Tadashi says, grinning as he sees Fred.
"Hey yourself," the fanboy answers, purposefully taking his time walking to the pool to tease him.
"I was afraid you weren't coming tonight," Tadashi tells him, giving him a fake pout. "You've been so caught up planning my birthday I think you forgot about me…"
"You know I could never do that," Fred replies with a warm smile as he crouches down next to the edge of the pool. "And besides, it'll all be worth it-trust me."
"It had better be," Tadashi lightly huffs, crossing his arms over his chest as he pretend-glares up at his boyfriend. "Are you at least going to kiss me goodnight?"
"Don't I always?" Fred answers playfully, reaching out an arm to him.
Tadashi takes it, pulling himself up out of the pool and onto the curved lip so that he could be on the same level as his boyfriend. Once he was sure that he was properly settled, Fred wraps his arms lightly around his waist and pulls him into a warm, sweet kiss. He still marveled at how Tadashi could get his head spinning so quickly, and how, instead of losing their power, the kisses only seemed to be getting stronger and stronger.
"So," Tadashi say teasingly when they finally break for air, resting his forehead against Fred's, "you sure there's nothing that you want to tell me about tomorrow?"
"Nice try," Fred answers with a light smirk. "But even your kisses aren't going to get that out of me."
"Well, it was worth a try," Tadashi chuckles before pulling him back in for one last quick kiss. "See you in the morning?" he asks when he lets go and Fred stands up, brushing loose sand off of his shorts.
"I wouldn't miss it for the world," Fred promises, and he means it with all of his heart.
There were many, many things that could have gone wrong and ruined their plans for the day, but when Fred wakes up in the morning and takes a look out the window to find a beautiful, cloudless blue sky with the sun shining down on the world as if it too wanted to be a part of the festivities, he had a very good feeling that things were going to turn out just fine.
In the kitchen, he bolts down a light breakfast-he wasn't sure exactly what the plans for the morning meal were at the Hamadas', and he'd never turn down free food if it was offered to him, but he figured that it was probably best to be prepared just in case (he wanted to make sure that he had plenty of energy for everything that they were doing that day!)
As soon as he dumps his cereal bowl in the kitchen sink (despite having servants, Fred didn't like to force the kitchen staff to go out of their way to make a meal as simple as breakfast for him unless his parents were home or there was company and so he usually fended for himself in the mornings), he races for the door, unable to wait a second longer than was necessary to go see his boyfriend and start the metaphorical ball rolling! Still, even as he runs, he stops to check every few feet that he hadn't lost or forgotten the package that he had (after much difficulty) wrapped himself for Tadashi and which was so crucial to the big surprise at the end of the day. He manages to make it to the mansion without managing to drop, misplace, or otherwise mangle the present, something his is extremely grateful for. Once inside the mansion, though, he realizes a slight problem-he doesn't hear any signs of life in the household. Was he too early? If so, what was he supposed to do? Just wait here, or would that be considered rude? He stands in the main entryway, feeling torn as to what his next step should be, when out of the silence he hears quiet noises coming from down the hallway to his left. Well, that seemed like the most logical place to go to find the answers to his questions and, hopefully, to find out if he wasn't the only one awake in the household, and so he follows the trail of sound through the passageways.
As he goes, a delicious smell is added to the sound until he finds himself, of all places, in the kitchen. He figured that maybe Aunt Cass had gotten up early to make breakfast but, to his great surprise, instead of her he finds Hiro working at the stove, on one side working on frying bacon, on the other side flipping pancakes. Fred watches him in slight shock for a minute-outside of sandwiches, he had no idea that the teen could actually cook! Still, it made sense given that the gene probably ran in the family. Damn, was there anything this family couldn't do?
"Oh, hey," Hiro says, looking slightly startled as he turns to see Fred standing in the doorway.
"Hi!" Fred answers, waving awkwardly. "Sorry, didn't mean to scare you!"
"Naw, it's all good," Hiro reassures him, pulling the bacon off of the stove and putting it onto a hotpad. "I just didn't hear you come in!"
"It's been rumored that my ancestors were ninjas," Fred says secretively.
"Wait, really?" Hiro asks, his interest piqued. "'Cause we have some samurai in our family lineage, maybe they crossed paths or-"
"No, I was kidding, and now I just feel even more inferior," Fred groans. "Seriously, all I've got is some prince who was thirteenth in line to the throne and was sent into exile for trying to murder some queen. How come you guys have all the cool stuff and I'm just so… vanilla?"
"Vanilla?" Hiro raises an eyebrow.
"Plain and boring!" Fred sighs. "Seriously, I don't see how I'd even be any competition if Tadashi had the choice between me and the rest of the guys out there… If I hadn't happened to be the first human outside of you guys that he ever met…"
"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Hiro puts his hands up defensively. "I don't do emotional stuff, especially not this early in the morning!"
Seeing the heartbroken look on Fred's face, he groans and says, "Okay, fine, I'll try to play 'counselor', but you have to get over here and help me with breakfast!"
Fred eagerly does as told, scurrying over and holding the plate that the teen hands him.
"All right-you know me, I don't b.s. around," Hiro says, flipping the pancakes. "And I don't do 'gentle' or 'touchy feely'."
"Right…" Fred agrees, a sinking feeling in his stomach.
"That said-honestly, I really do think that, even if Tadashi was human and had had his choice of guys, that he wouldn't have picked you or someone like you," Hiro continues. "Trust me-I may be his little bro and he tries to keep me 'sheltered', but I know what he's into-y'know, in that way. For one thing, you're both uber nerds, and that's really important to him, so you already chalk up some points there. For another, you balance him out. I might know nothing about relationships, but you're calm when he gets all emotional and you know how to make him laugh when he's stressed out. Nothing phases you-I mean, hell, you meet a merman and instead of freaking out or anything, he tells you he wants to kiss you and you're just cool with it? Granted, Dashi was probably going all mer on you, but still!" Hiro chuckles wryly. "You think that being 'vanilla' is bad? Given our family tree is full of nuts and craziness, he needs someone to help thin that out. You're like… the ice cream in the bottom of the sundae glass and Tadashi is the hot fudge. One without the other is good, but if you tried to just add more fudge to plain fudge, you get an overdose and you end up sick. You mix ice cream and fudge together, though, and you get something awesome!"
"Ice cream? You're really going to go with that?" Fred laughs.
"Hey, you mentioned vanilla, and besides, I'm cooking right now, so sue me!" Hiro snarks back.
"Point taken!"
Fred takes a moment to process all of this as Hiro starts taking the now-ready pancakes off of the griddle. "So…" he finally says. "You really think that I still have a chance-even once he hopefully gets legs and can start being around other people?"
"Is that what you're worried about? Seriously?" Hiro says, raising an eyebrow. "Dude-you do realize that in order for him to become human it has to be true love's kiss? I think that if you're at that point, he's going to be pretty gone on you do you don't need to worry about anyone else getting in the way."
"True…" Fred agrees, smiling slightly. He hadn't really thought of that. It had been there in the back of his mind, of course, but he'd mainly just been concentrating on getting Tadashi that kiss-he hadn't really thought about what it really meant. A lot of people might have been scared when they came to that revelation-true love? That was a pretty big commitment right there. But honestly? Fred couldn't think of anyone he'd rather have that with than with Tadashi.
"Oh, and you know what I said about knowing what my brother was into?" Hiro adds, smirking slightly at the dopey smile that had ended up on Fred's face.
"Yeah," Fred agrees, coming out of his slight daze.
"Well… Let's just say that Dashi's always had a bit of a thing for the traditional Prince Charming types," Hiro responds with a wry chuckle. "So the fact that you've got long hair? Oh yeah, he's all over that."
"H-he is?" Fred cries, his hand involuntarily going to the back of his neck-he hadn't even realized that Tadashi actually thought he was attractive! Of course he knew that he found Tadashi majorly hot in an adorable sort of way, but he hadn't really expected the feeling to be mutual…
"Don't expect me to go giving you any details," Hiro answers, rolling his eyes and looking vaguely uncomfortable with the topic, "but I'll give you a hint: you ever want to really get him going? Try a ponytail-it's, like, a weird fetish thing he has. Don't ask how I know that, I have, like, mental scars, but yeah, trust me. A ponytail would do it. Just don't try it if anyone else is in the room because he might seriously go down on you, and I do NOT want to see that!"
"I'll keep that in mind," Fred says, unable to keep from grinning slightly. Huh, Hiro had turned out to be a pretty useful source of information!
"Do not even tell me what you're thinking about, I do NOT want to know," Hiro groans before taking the plate from him and shoving a tray into his hands. "Hold that. I've gotta finish putting together Tadashi's breakfast before it goes cold!"
"Out of curiosity-I think it's awesome that you can cook, I wish I could, but doesn't your aunt usually rule the kitchen around here?" Fred asks as Hiro works on putting together a plate of food.
"Well, yeah," Hiro agrees. "But we kind of have an unspoken rule for special occasions-since she goes all out killing herself on the rest of the meals for the day, I make breakfast."
"Makes sense," Fred agrees, nodding in understanding, only to feel his stomach churn as he sees Hiro pull something dark red and crustacean-y out of a steaming pot and put it on top of the innocent looking stack of pancakes. "I-is that…?" he starts to ask.
"A crayfish? Yeah," Hiro agrees, shaking his head slightly. "As much as it weirds me out, Dashi is mer so he eats like one. You probably noticed that we eat a lot of fish around here? He likes human food fine, but if you really want him to enjoy something, it's gotta have seafood in it. Even if it's something that, for no reason that is good or holy, should have seafood in it."
"How exactly does that work?" Fred asks, remembering the question that had been bugging him for weeks and he needed to know the answer to. "I mean, aren't mers, supposed to… y'know be friends with fish and be able to talk to them and stuff?"
"Okay, that was something Disney came up with to make the story more 'cutesy' and add in unnecessary comic relief," Hiro responds with a slight smile. "And it's a good thing, too, 'cause if Dashi's any marker, even if they could understand them, the fish would still be in trouble 'cause mers are all about the seafood. Usually raw, but for our sake Tadashi's willing to eat it cooked so that we don't get too grossed out. The way he explains it-and he doesn't exactly know how he knows this, I guess it's just some inborn knowledge that comes with having the tail or something-fish are to mers what all the different animals are to us. Some are wild creatures they observe from afar that don't even want to get close to them, like regular wild animals, and so they just leave each other alone. There are others that are kind of like chickens or cows for them-they're the ones that tend to get used for food. And then there are apparently some sea creatures that are more intelligent, like dolphins and seahorses, that are kind of the mer equivalent of dogs and cats and horses-y'know, ones that can be domesticated to be pets or work animals. I know that Dashi would love a dolphin or a seal, and it's not like we haven't looked into that before. But every time he tells us that he wouldn't feel right keeping something that needs the space of the ocean trapped in a pool like he is. He always says that maybe if he gets legs someday he'd like to have a cat, like Aunt Cass."
"I see," Fred answers vaguely. Wow, what was it about this family and liking to give information dumps? Still, most of that had made at decent sense, so he decided to just go with it. And hm… A cat? Well, they'd still have to wait until the kiss to happen, but he could imagine an adorable scene of him and Tadashi going to adopt a kitten at the local animal shelter. Oh yeah, that was totally going on his bucket list!
"Did I just blow the circuits of your brain or something?" Hiro laughs, seeing the expression on the fanboy's face.
"Nope, think I'm good!" Fred answers with a grin before adding, "All right, so, you ready to go start this birthday off right?"
"Totally!" Hiro agrees, happily heading towards the door as Fred carefully follows with the tray. "Tadashi, here we come!"