Off the deep end

"Please?Please?Please?Please?"

Cass was used to hearing similar voices in unison by now. But it was still hard to process without her morning cup of tea and especially when she was having to look at flyers when she wasn't even fully awake. "What are these for?"

"Summer robotics class!" Hiro chirped.

"Swim lessons!" Hideki grinned.

Tadashi looked up from his book this time Unwind as he raised an eyebrow. "Hideki didn't I teach you how to swim forever ago?"

"That was along with Hiro and that was because you were worried we would drown."

"Technically one of you almost did-"

"I got better." Hiro interrupted.

Cass just laid her head on the kitchen table. "Boys give me an hour to wake up before starting World War III."

The boys exchanged a look before heading quietly down the stairs to continue their discussion. "And anyways…" Hideki started. "I wanna get better at it. You only showed us the basics. Enough so we could at least have fun at the beach. But I wanna do more than that."

"Hideki you know that's a lot of exercise." Tadashi started but cut himself off at the puppy eyes Hideki was giving him. "You sure you can handle that?"

"Ahuh, ahuh! And I don't wanna take the same stuff as Hiro-nii… No offense bro."

"None taken, I don't wanna spend my summer getting in and out of a freezing pool." Hiro shrugged before looking back at the robotics class flyer with a longing look.

"See?"

"And I totally get that. You two are separate people and got separate interests… But you know you'd have to stick it out right? You know our attitude about giving up."

"I know! I stuck it out with Hiro when you had us take self defense with you remember?"

They all cringed remembering. Tadashi had gained his black belt but his brothers had taken to just asking Tadashi to show them specific moves so they wouldn't get beaten up on the playground… Again.

"You two were troopers that's for sure…"

"Exactly…"

When Cass was actually awake she made the arrangements. The twins had their summer plans.

oooo

"You nervous?"

"What's there to be nervous for?" Hideki tried to hide how nervous he actually was. It was nearing the end of that summer and he had done well… Better than he expected as he was now competing for the first time. He was terrified of not doing well since he wanted to make his family proud of him.

Hiro frowned looking at his twin and squeezed his hand. "Hey… It'll be okay. You'll do well."

"Hiro-nii…" Hideki murmured giving him a small smile. "You think so?"

Hiro grinned offering him a fist bump. "I know so."

Hideki bumped fists with his twin before hurrying to the starting point.

Hiro made his way back over to where the others were. "He's nervous." He muttered to Tadashi as they watched their brother get into position.

"I hope he doesn't choke…" Tadashi winced remembering the last time Hideki had to face a large crowd of people. If I have to throw him into the pool it's really not gonna look good on anyone here.

Hideki took a deep breath to try to steady his nerves. When the buzzer went off he dove in, trying to ignore his other competitors. He just wanted to get to the other side.

Just keep going. Keep going. Make it to the end…

He shoved off the pool wall once to the other side in the lead ahead of the others. That was the first lap and as he kept going he found he was still ahead of them.

I… I'm actually doing it…!

When it was over, Hideki hung to the side of the pool to catch his breath but he was proud of himself. He hauled himself out after a moment feeling a bit shaky as he looked to where his family was.

"THAT'S MY TWIN!" Hiro called.

"Way to go bro!"

Cass had nothing to say as she was filming and trying to catch everything. Hideki grinned to himself waving to them before going to sit down.

"And the winner is… HIDEKI HAMADA!"

Hideki's head snapped up, had he dozed off? They didn't actually say his name did they? "What…?"

He stood up hurrying over as a medal was placed over his neck. He bowed a bit. "Thank you…"

"You did the best out of the others… Well done."

The boy looked over and yelped as he was nearly tackled by Hiro. "I KNEW YOU COULD DO IT!"

"A-ack! HIRO-NII! CHOKING NOT HUGGING!"

"I don't care! THAT WAS AWESOME!"

"Choking…!" Hideki pushed him back a bit as Tadashi ruffled his hair. "Ack! Still wet hair guys!"

"Sorry we're just… Proud of you. You did great." Tadashi smiled. "First place… You should be proud of yourself."

"I-I am…"

Cass pulled her nephew into a hug before moving back. "Alright photo of the winner. Hiro, Tadashi out."

Hideki snuck a smug look to his twin before smiling as she snapped a picture.

"And that's going into the album!"

So… First place… Heh… Not bad for the twin of a genius.